I love the PD150. I own the PD170.
And I dislike the XL1.
That said, to get an overall better picture quality you will
need to do more than just change cameras. You can get
excellent picture quality with the XL1. My business partner
uses that camera and he gets amazing quality so I know
this to be true from first hand experience.
And I have gotten excellent quality with my PD170.
To get aesthetically impressive movies with your XL1 you
need to light well. It's amazing what the properly placed
light can to to the overall quality of the picture.