Thoughts on Sony HVR A1?

Greetings,

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, as I'm new to all this. I am looking to acquire a small lightweight camera for overseas field production, and have been looking closely at the sony HVR A1. Here are my questions!

1. Does is use miniDV tapes? If so, does it record HDV on these tapes, or do I need special tapes for this. I'm still very confused about this whole HDV thing, and I want to make sure I'm not in over my head while I try and edit dailies in the field.

2. deck - do I need on to get my data on the my mac, or does the camera act as a deck?

3. Headphones - it's so tiny! Is there a place to put headphones in to monitor sound (maybe this is a silly question, but someone else brought it up in another forum and it was never answered, making me nervous...)

4. Lens - Is it removable? I saw that there is a wide angle adapter, but what about telephoto?

Any impressions about the quality of this camera would be most appreciated!

Thanks!
-ellie