I'd really like to see some footage where the iris is changed using the new wheel on the A1.

I'm interested in seeing how subtle the changes really are and if they compare to a true manual lens.

I have some footage I might be able to post later, but let me tell you, the iris ring is a thing of beauty. Very smooth and analog-like.

The steppiness of the old iris controls on the XL's is gone with these cameras.

It is nice and smooth, it appears that the camcorder will compensate for any quick and harsh changes by computing a gradual shift that blends the extremes of aperture and gain so that it is hardly noticeable (or at least noticeably better than other cams I have used.