I agree with sewingpup - you need to try them out.
My experiences with Janome were not positive. Having been used to a Bernina, the Janomes felt like a lightweight toy to me. The stitch quality was ... meh. Not awful, but not great, either. In fairness, that was probably 15 years ago, and as I was looking for a travel machine, I was specifically looking at their lightweight models. I bought one, sold it and upgraded to one a bit higher in their line, sold that within a year as well.
I often forget to use YouTube as a resource, but I bet you could find lots of videos there on either machine. Search for how to change needle position there. I can't imagine that it can't be done.
What about distance to tech for them? Either farther away or less customer friendly?
Lastly, there's a website called PatternReview . com that lets you search for reviews of machines. You don't have to join to look at newer postings. If you want to look at older ones, you do need to join, but it's no cost.
Good luck with making a decision!