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I am looking to replace my Sony PC110E with a 3CCD professional camcorder and have found 3 options so far:

Sony VX2000
Canon XL1S
Canon XM-2

Anyone care to share their experiences on any of the above? I think the XL1S is the one most people are using or have used in the past as it is the one I have saw being used by Ben Dover (I think...) but still keen to know anyones thoughts on them - mostly will be used for indoors use and would like a decent optical zoom as well, anything else I should be looking out for? There is a considerable price difference between the XL1S and the XM2, can anyone point out the differences in laymans terms?

Finally anyone recommend somewhere to buy them from bar the usual suspects like Jessops?

Thanks

Jason

Do a search on this site, there has been lots of questions about camcorders recently.

Stay clear of the Cannons (the pictures quality sucks and they do something odd with the sound -leading to a nasty result) The VX2000 (Or PDX150) is a safe bet, as the TRV900e the PDX10 (this is little gem and shoots on miniDV to true 16:9 ratio. It's small, light, compact and packed with pro-features.

As for purchasing them, go to DVC in Bournemouth - extra helpful staff, reasonable prices, first class tech support follow up. They can even sell you the editing kit as well.

Good luck and enjoy

Can vouch for Canon's reliability. My XM2 has never played up, sound or picture. A friend's XM1 has gone for 3 years without any probs. Difference between XM2 and XL1s is mainly the XL1s has the ability to change lenses, so you can fit our own (zooms, telephot etc), and there's also the option to add multi-gizmos-type things to the microphones so you can run several at once, which, the XM2 does now, anyway, if you buy the write attachments. I will admit I prefer the dials on the Sonys (VX2000, PD150) as the XM2 is a wee bit fiddly. But it also has a handy memory card for taking stills, and it's not as heavy as the VX2000.

I used to own a VX1000, the original handycam, and considered upgrading to a 2000 - I often wonder if I should have bought one of those instead but I can honestly say I'm quite proud of my Canon XM2, picture's very clear and bright, sound is distinct and deep.