FishEyes, you should check the new tech Exmor™ CMOS sensors, a big improvement across the board. Plus Sony is one of the first ic manufacturers to use multiple column A/Ds. Where everyone else uses one column, producing "rolling shutter" effect by; if they sample the same ccd twice for the other part-frame or has a slow sampling of sensor- the most common approach( this is an over simplified comment, not meant to be detailed).
When E1R ships, I'll check it out in the flesh to see if it is the right tool for my business. 90% of my work is weddings and the rolling shutter is a complete show stopper.
I don't think the EX1R has the new sensor at least not the backlit sensor.
Fisheyes, you're just a bundle of optimism... First of all, "the other change to the (EX1R) ND filters is improved filtering of near infra-red to eliminate the red contamination of some black man made fabrics under certain lighting conditions."
Here are a couple of reviews (both of them by the same person.) They are pretty in-depth, particularly the video at the bottom of the article in the second link: