I have heard that the V1 has a 30X digital extender for those far off shots, with good light zoomed all the way in using the 30X extender how pixelated are the images compaired to using the 20X zoom under the same conditions.

Just returned from a ski trip - used the zoom a lot taking video of the kids skiing - did not really see much of a difference between 20 optical and 30 digital zoom - i.e. no obvious pixelation - was very pleased with the performance

I've used the digital extender a number of times when I just needed to get 'closer'. I do notice a slight softening of the image, a little more of the unnatural edge effect you might get if you enlarged an image in post, but it is pretty slight. I think it is better than the average digital extender and I'm glad it's there. I don't leave it on all the time of course but when I need it it comes in handy. In fact I feel the need to have it available so much in fact I have it assigned to one of the V1's buttons.