Great, feature packed camcorder

Received this recently at a sub $700 price. This is my second DV camcorder, replacing a higher-end JVC model. I shot probably a hundred hours of video on the JVC and learned that I didn't use most of the features I thought were important when I bought it. This time I went for resolution/size/price. The canon scores big in these categories.
This unit is a "midrange" camcorder. almost identical to the optura500 but without the video light of the 500(which is only operational to a few feet).

Excellent picture, Double the resolution of my old jvc plus primary color filters. I felt the image on my JVC was excellent...this is better.

Ergonomics are a tad tiny. the record button is a nice size and positioned well, but the zoom slider is a tad small and placed a tad too low on the body for my long fingers. The buttons hidden behind the lcd are big, well labeled and laid out nicely. Other buttons...menu and mode buttons are tiny. The photo button is well situated in the index-finger area.

16:9 aspect ratio but no PS. One feature missing is the progressive scan recording which would be nice in the age of HD, but the easily selectable 16:9 ratio is nice!

Digicam: 2MP stills, really people call this a useless feature, but 2MP stills look great on a TV, and when I make my vacation DVD's I always include a stills slide show at the end. For printing=no, for video=yes! I'm a news photog carrying DSLR's but still find the camcorder stills useable (preferable!)for videos.

Digital features. It has a chroma key feature that I haven't figured out yet but looks like it could be fun. Digital fades and wipes(for scene transitions) are useless to someone using a DV editing program. and really, if you're not editing to DVD what's the point of DV!? Has an interesting multi-frame mode that will display up to 16stills on one screen. Low light performance is very good, the actual night-mode gets a little grainy.

Form factor: small, almost too small for my hand. The cam rests in the crook of the thumb and third finger, so I don't feel my hand is wrapped completely around. just different. small enough that it fits in a side pocket on my photo bag so this is a big convenience.
Small form factor means small battery(580mah), so a high-capacity spare or two are a must. Battery life is listed at 1hr...and this seems accurate. The item does NOT ship with an external charger...so if you're traveling you'll really want one of these...otherwise you're not using the cam while you recharge batteries. Spare batteries are available in 600mah to 1300mah.

Also, no docking station. the cam has a/v in-out, s-video(nice) and firewire onboard as well as a mic input which could prove useful.