Good point there. I had forgotten that. However, I will add that prior to my dvc60s (or dvc30) I always used manual zoom. But the zoom finesse abilities of the dvc60 was so perfect I never missed not having manual zoom. Whatever you want to do it could. So, I would say, in my case anyway, that if the hpx250 had the kind of zoom control of the dvc60/30 that it wouldn't even need a manual zoom. It could barely crawl, zap power zoom, and any variable zoom in between, and the start and stop were unnoticeable to the viewer.. None of that cheap consumer start stop stuff like most cameras have (even more expensive ones). They truly got it right on those cameras.
