Help! Camera with good HD recording/Low noise(720p acceptable)

[Michael68]

Dear all,
I am thinking of travelling light with my family and instead of the usual camcorder plus DSLR, I wanted to get a 2 in one.

I hope to look for the following:

1) Decent low noise (indoors without flash and acceptable ISO shots of 1600
2) Good HD recording with zoom functions (720p ok as I understand 1080p will need lots of memory cards:bigeyes.
3) Good battery life
4) Quick focusing

I shortlisted the following:
Canon SX 20IS
Panasonic GH1, LX3, GF1

Any recommendations welcomed. If anyone is letting go of their camera (less than one year old and in excellent condition), I would be happy to discuss as well.

Thanks!

Regards,
Michael

 

[wycklk]

Panasonic FZ35.

See professional review and user review e.g. steves-digicam forum.