I am mostly stills and have not shot video for several years. And I am not super familiar with camcorders.
A quick look at the specs for XA11 and MC88, one thing that jumps out is the Canon appears to have a more versatile lens. If I am reading the specs right, it's faster and the range of effective focal lengths is much larger. I don't know what the low-light performance of those sensors is, but if you are shooting indoor weddings then a faster lens is definitely an advantage. There are a lot of questions about the audio stage I would have but just can't answer. Typically audio and preamps on rigs like these is not fantastic. You mention external audio specifically, so I would dig around and look for some specific reviews of their audio. There are other issues like focus assist and peaking, and codecs that affect usability and that may or may not matter to you.
Just to throw something out there, another brand you might consider is Blackmagic. The Pocket 4K is about $1300. You mention not wanting 4K and you would have to buy a lens(-es) separately but maybe it's another option.
About Canon vs Sony from a stills perspective? All the ILC cameras now are good. Any of Canon, Sony, Nikon should be great.
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Originally Posted by bucketfoot
I'm pretty much certain I am going the professional route and have narrowed the choice down to a Canon XA11 or Sony HXR-MC88.
Since both are ultimately optical devices, I wonder if some of the photography folks can weigh in on Canon vs Sony. My uneducated bias would lean towards Canon over Sony if it came to camera. But then Sony has a huge presence in the video world.
Plus I would have the benefit of simple things like it would use the same family of batteries that my current camcorder uses.
Ultimately I have a strong feeling that I can't really go wrong with either choice.
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