I was looking thru the bhphoto source books for the specs on your cameras and i found the xm2 but not xm1 i beleive thats a 3 chip cam.Is the panasonic new?i dont see it but if its not a 3 chip similar to the canon than it wont compete. I have sony cx 500 small handycam that is 1 chip and is excellent in lowlight.id sell all your cameras and save for something newer.
The Canon is a three-chip cam and I'm loathe to sell it given the low-light capabilities of most midrange (and even some rather expensive) HD cams. The Panasonic was an impulse buy because it was a great price (less than GBP150 for a reconditioned model) and it's perfect for family stuff - dead light, great quality footage outdoors and effectively disposible - if I dropped it and killed it, it wouldn't be too great a loss.
I'd really like to pick up one of the 3-chip Panasonic HDC TM-700 cams but they're a little too expensive for me at the moment. Hoping to get a Sanyo Xacti HD2000 in the interim though - seems to have the best low-light performance in its class and can be had for good prices secondhand.
I've had a look at your Sony and it seems very nice, especially in terms of low-light performance but looks to be a non-UK model at present. I do like the idea of 32GB of onboard storage though - I'm sure there must be a European equivilent... Thanks for the advice.