CamcorderInfo.com has the latest coverage of the new Canon XL-H1. It's $9000 MSRP, which should put it about $7500-8000 retail, which is pretty good. There's now an optical stabilizer and it'll come out in November. I'm sold. CamcorderInfo.com also has links to other sites.
I'm hoping that the actual shipping XL-H1 isn't all-black like the press-release photograph to the right. I actually liked the white/black/red color of the XL2 units. It made the different from the usual run-of-the-mill shoulder camcorders.
And also call me a luddite, but I prefer eyepiece focusing to flip-out-screens. Of course, the best of all worlds is to have both (the flip-out-screens are especially good for reviewing shots in the field), but the XL-H1 now has an enormous 2.5" LCD lurking behind their viewfinder, and it's designed so that you can flip the eyepiece out of the way for low or high-level shots or for reviewing. Of course, you can also just hook up your laptop in the field or get a small auxiliary LCD screen.
For super-luddites (of which I am not), Canon even sells a black-and-white high-resolution eyepiece monitor. The eye has better resolution in black-and-white, which makes critical focusing easier. The B+W monitor is extremely expensive and the new XL-H1 has some built-in focusing aids such as automatically zooming in the eyepiece magnification when focusing or increasing contrast.
