Doesn't the panasonic have some flaws like no microphone jack ? I know that there is atleast one Panasonic HD with no microphone jack... Far as I know the panasonic HD cams never really offered the same good video quality as say the Canon HF10 ? But I think I read a test on the XR500 and it scored really high, especially in low light conditions which I consider very important! Nothing worse than have a grainy picture at night. So I guess the XR would be a good choice, but also take a look at the panasonics maybe, or the Canon HF20..