Sony Handycam HDR-XR520

Hi James,
Finally, a ripping review on something which I NEED to know about.
I'm a student so money isn't 'flowing', I'm in need of a camcorder & I've been doing a touch of research and I've come to the same conclusion as most other people on this page; I'm going to purchase either:
- the Sony xr520,
- Canon's LEGRIA HF S10; and
- S100 or Panasonic's HDC-HS300

I study film so short films will be recorded on it. I'm going on a 3 month snowboarding trip so filming 'action' is also required. Obviously all camcorders do this, but which is the best out of the 3? I'm not TOTALLY up with all the technical jargon used when referring to the specifications of each camcorder, but I can still roughly understand.

I've been looking in local stores for camcorders, but recently I've turned to the net as all the prices on here seem SO much cheaper.

What I've found on the net is that the Sony xr520 is offered with and without the GPS, so just wanting to know if that's the only difference between the two? I'm positive that the GPS is a useless function for me, and the price without GPS is roughly $1100 and with GPS is $2199.... so you see why I ask!
however, should i just go with the canon or panasonic?

thanks for your help and the reviews, bloody excellent.

Tom.

hi James. Thanks for yr good reviews.
I want to buy my first camcoder and I am looking for a Flashdrive one. I have sony's DSC-H50 camera(9.1 MP, 15 Optical Zoom )so i am not worry about still photos. I will use camcoder for only recording videos. I am so confused between Panasonic HDC-TM300, Sony HDR CX520(same as HDR XR520 just use flash drive and less memory) and canon Legria HF S10(or Legria HF S11). I am going to use it for recording normal video while on holidays, nothing special like making movies. i also consider recording at night. can u please tell me which one is good one? and is night mode is only use for taking still images or recording movies too?