My pick would be between Canon and Sony. Both brands take stunning video.
My experience is with Canon. I have used the HF100 and now have the HF S100. I love the video and you will be blown out of the room at the sharpness and detail with these "amateur" camcorders. The new HF S100 is rated at 900 lines, which is putting it in professional resolution. I loved the HF100 and can highly recommend it. I also have heard excellent reviews of the HF11.
My HF S100 has a 3 minute pre-record mode and the built in (loss-less) 1.7x tele-extender. Combined with the 10x optical zoom, the overall zoom range of this camcorder is 17x. It records at 24Mb if you want the highest resolution possible. I have used mine for about 2 months so far, and am amazed every time I play back the video on my 52" LCD HD TV. I especially like going tapeless. With just a few SDHC 32GB cards, you can record for days.
Either way, if you go with Canon or Sony - and stick with the higher end models, you will be amazed at the quality of HD video that these cameras record.
-Tom
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Canon HF S100
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