Holy Cats, Batman

[John Camp]

The new Panasonic Lumix reviewed on Digital Camera Review is closer to a total street camera than the new Sony, I think, though it has an 8mp sensor compared to the SDony's 10mp. However -- it is smaller, weighs only 740g with the lithium ion battery (1.6 lb), and has a 12x 35-420 (!) "Leica-branded" image-stabilized zoom at f2.8-3.7. Biggest flaw is that it's EVF-only, which is a rather large flaw. Shoots raw, tiff and jpg.

I may have to run out and get me one of these...though I suspect the season for these cameras is just getting underway, and maybe somebody will have had the sense to put a optical viewfinder in one of them. The review uses the phrase Leica-branded, which means, I suspect, that it rolled out of some lens-stamping plant in China somewhere and they slapped Leica's name on it. But maybe not. Maybe it's the real thing.

JC

[Digi-T]

Why even try to compare this camera to the Sony R1? They are completely different cameras. The Panasonic is all about the large zoom and the Sony excells with wide angle shots. The Sony also uses a much larger CMOS sensor to provide superior quality in a wider range of shooting conditions. As for street photography is concened I would much rather have the zoom range of the Sony and its higher quality sensor over the Panasonic. This is not to say that the Panasonic wouldn't be a very nice camera Too. They just excell at different things. I don't see the EVFs going away anytime soon on the prosumer cameras but I do think there is much room for improvement. Manufactures don't appear to be making this issue much of a priority and I think that is a shame.

T