What, no A1 yet?
Well, here goes.

I have had mine for only a few months, but really like the controls for exposure being very accessible. The iris ring is great and the shutter speed and gain switches are easy to operate without having to look at them. Also 2 ND filters. These are great features for those needing to work fast.
The picture is pretty good too. The opportunities to fine tune the picture are pretty substantial.

downsides

1. No switch for optical stabilzer. Have to go through menu to switch on and off, which means stopping the camera.
2. Same thing with audio input. Have to stop camera to switch between XLR and on cam mic.

Mark, just to clarify, is this the Sony A1 you are referring to or the Canon XH A1?

Sorry, that was the Canon XH-A1.