In the light of all the work that has been done with the Canon XL series, I think to say that "Canon does not make a professional product" is just silly. There have been full length features shot with the XL1/XL1s. You really have to question how valid someone's advice is when its so obviously biased.

A "professional" is simply this: someone who is paid to do the work. When we say "that was unprofessional" or "they are not professional" we're often actually saying "they did a poor job for someone who is getting paid."

This thread got totally hijacked. John, please, read the intial post: "My question to all you XL2 users and gurus: Aside from 16x9 and the 20x zoom lens, what made you go with the XL2?"

The Canon XL series has been a very successful line, and obviously a lot of great work has been done with it. If someone has had remarkedly poor results using an XL2, I don't think it is necessarily the camera's fault (don't blame the equipment).