Which of these superzooms do YOU think is better and WHY?

They are both good cameras, as you may have already guessed from your head-ache inducing research. Having narrowed it down to these two cameras then I'd trust the review sites out there, it's still a close call, but on balance the reviews I've found seem to suggest the Panasonic is the ever so slightly better of the two (though I think you'd be more than happy with either!