Judging by your clips and Kato's, they are both excellent cameras and I think the HDD option, HDMI (for my Sony flat panel), the 30x (for birds & watersports) and the 24/30p sway me to the Sony.
So, thank you.

Just to clarify, you meant 20x zoom..correct?

I'm pretty sure he means 30x, which is available beyond the 20x optical zoom via the Extended Zoom feature. Unlike most digital zoom "effects," the one on the FX7 / V1 is actually quite useable.

Yes, 30x using extended zoom means around 1100mm (35mm equivalent) -- important to me for wildlife and ocean sports shooting.
Just to put it in perspective, if I bought a $5400 500mm stabilized lens for my Canon 5D plus a 1.4x Canon lens extender I'd have 700mm (although with a lot more resolution in pixels) so HD footage with the V1U using 30x is an exciting prospect. The Canon XH-A1 does not have the digital extender, so this adds up to a V1U advantage for my uses.

Yes, 30x using extended zoom means around 1100mm (35mm equivalent) -- important to me for wildlife and ocean sports shooting.
Just to put it in perspective, if I bought a $5400 500mm stabilized lens for my Canon 5D plus a 1.4x Canon lens extender I'd have 700mm (although with a lot more resolution in pixels) so HD footage with the V1U using 30x is an exciting prospect. The Canon XH-A1 does not have the digital extender, so this adds up to a V1U advantage for my uses.

This is great news!

I was not aware of that feature. So it is not optical but the algorithm Sony uses is better than your typical consumer digital zoom?

You're right about it being an advantage over the A1. i have an A1 sitting in my living room right now that I bought in part due to the 20x zoom. But the Canon has a different range and it does not offer the kind of zoom I am looking for.

I should have paid better attention to the specs.

My A1 is up for sale and I will wait for the V1 in December.

I seem to remember seeing a link to a feature comparisson between the V1 and FX7. I've just been searching this forum for the link but can't find it (obviously not using the right keywords...) Can anyone point me to it, please?
Thanks for the links, everyone.