Camcorder Advice Canon

I presently own a canon xm2 camcorder and I'm looking to upgrade, I've looked at the Canon XA 10 which looks highly recommended, will I see much improvement in quality upgrading to this model, I know its HD... I would prefer 20x optical though, what's sony's offering like in comparison?

Hrmm as far as I know, the XA10 is the same as the HF-G10, but with a handle and audio plugins on it. I picked up the G10 and played with it, but what I diddint like was that most of the settings were through a touch screen and not buttons. And the touch screen was not superb. I havent kept up on the newest, but Sony, Panasonic, and Canon are all worth looking at. I would youtube comparisons on quality. I did get to play with a Sony PMW-EX1 back in college and it was superb, however its an entirely pro cam. But Sony has stepped up their game in recent years.

I'm totally confused as to what is the best quality.. I want to pay around £1000-£1500 for a camcorder, I've seen some of panasonics latester offerings on there website the 3 ccd hd cams, how do these compare to the canon xa 10 ,etc with its single ccd in terms of quality..

I do own XA10, and I love this cam. I did lots of research prior to getting this, including an IQ comparison between this and the Panasonic's 3 CCD cam. My conclusion was that there was hardly any distinguishable difference in the lenses themselves, but there are comparisons on YouTube for you to reach your own conclusions. I'm not a big fan of touchscreen, but it's something you can get used to in a hurry. As for the picture IQ, here's my sample (be sure to watch it in 1080p HD):

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=yJBYk3rA_Qs