So panasonic issued a firmware update for the af100.  It's not a huge change, but it is a big step for panasonic who has not typically put out firmware updates to address customer feedback.  This one was clearly in response to a thread over at dvx user titled AF100 improvement wishlist 

The main thing it does is fix a very slight hue shift in the LCD.  Also,  if you look at the lower left corner of the screen in the photo.  That's A.REC with a red slash through it.  It pops up when you are in VFR mode to remind you that no audio is being recorded.  You still get audio to the headphones and meters still bounce.  So it's still not ideal, but it's a good start.  Kudos to panasonic for stepping up their firmware delivery.  Here's hoping for more in the future.

Panasonic also announced that native avchd editing is coming to FCP through a plugin that they are developing.  This is also a huge step for Panasonic as they have historically been very slow to support anything on the mac platform.