Does anybody else notice on their PD170 that when you move the iris/f-stop wheel the f-stop changes every two clicks of the wheel instead of every one click?

Hugh, that is an improvement over the earlier models. They doubled the number of iris clicks so that changes are less noticeable in manual mode. For more info see the following:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28718
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31245

Thanks a mil for your prompt reply!

Note that what seems to happen is that only the display changes every two clicks Hugh, whereas in reality each and every click-stop opens or closes the aperture by one quarter stop. As Boyd says, this has been done to minimise the intrusive nature on your footage of the half-stop clicks on the PD150.

Note that the VX2100 continues on with the old half-stop changes - which is why I can no longer continue to reccommend this model.

tom.