Steve:

Truthfully I have had no problems with smear on the DV953. Sure if the the iris is opened a little more I'm sure it will, but not like I saw on the PDX-10. While the PDX-10 is a nice camera one has to take into consideration is the extra 600-700 dollars worth it.

The DV 953 has a little hood built in which can be removed by unscrewing it then you can add what you want. It's a 43 mm thread and I'm sure there is something commercially available for it.

I have not used the 16:9 feature yet because quite frankly I don't have a 16:9 set and I'm mostly doing 4x3 televsion shows right now. We do however have a new television truck in the area which is HD, so it would be interesting to check out the video on that truck and do some tests with my camera in the wider screen format.

I myself have not used a tele add on, but there was a thread here about wide angle lenses. I have been waiting for a post myself on the wide angle adapters especially the new Tiffen Mega Plus series to see how these are performing. I have been in the market for a wide angle adapter but maybe I'll just shop it myself when I'm in New York at the end of the month.

As I said ..... you can't beat it for the price unless you want the new and improved version (the GS100) from Japan. I too wanted to go that routem but wanted to luxury of English menus as against the Japanese only menus in the GS100. A lot of people are hoping this camera will be released in the coming months outside of Japanese market with english menus as it has received very favorable reviews from all.

I'm very happy with the DV953. Why don't you try it out for a week or so then make your decision. You can always get it from a place like Circuit City and return it if your not happy. There is nothing like trying the camera for yourself to see how it performs for you.

Well I went to B&H and came home with a DVC80.....my biggest problem is getting a good setup for zoomed video as there aren't many add-on's for 72mm threaded front lenses....58mm is about as large as I've found and only 2X at that....so i have to find a workable solution as I need between 4X-5X (+) zoom capabilities while keeping the excellent low light capabilities in play...

...some fun times ahead for me.

PS- I would have traded the wide angle stock lens for better zoom- but I guess you just can't have everything! If Panasonic would market this same camera but with 20X plus zoom- imagine how big a hit it would be with nature videographers (and sports)

Give me 30X zoom and i'd be thrilled....or am i just asking too much?