XH-A1 vs. XH-A1s

Hi all:

I'm a part of a small business looking to do small productions on the side. We have had two Sony VX2100's and have had many problems. I'm trying to research the canon XH-A1. The XH-A1s is priced at $1000 dollars higher than the XH-A1. Supposedly, the s model has a 6-pin firewire rather than a 4-pin, and better iris rings. Is that $1000 dollars worth the upgrades from the standard model? How have those upgrades changed the problems in the previous model?

Much appreciated,

Jonathan Holtz