I don't need a professional quality camera, nor a "prosumer" model as I want a camera I can easily put in my fanny pack along with some trail mix and a flashlight and hit the trail or tourist spots. This is a nice relatively small camera that has a powerful 12x zoom. I've attached my pix of a semi taken at regular and 12x to give an idea of the distance you can be from your subject and still take a great picture.
I purchased Panasonic's first iteration of this camera, the FZ1, a couple years ago. It was less than 3mp, but that was fine for printing 5x7 (and even up to 8x10). Here's why: the first mark of a good camera is not the megapixel count, but the lens that lets the light in. Four companies make great camera lenses. They are Zeiss, Leica, Nikon and Canon. Nikon and Canon of course make cameras. Certain Sony cameras use Zeiss lenses. Leica makes its own cameras, but Panasonic was able to persuade them to design a set of lenses that Panasonic can use (I imagine in return Panasonic takes care of the digital components and manufacturing for Leica's own series of digital cameras). Although common in video cameras Panasonic was (from what I've read at least) the first to bring image stabilization technology to ordinary digital cameras (despite Canon having developed this for certain of its telephoto L-series lenses and awesome binoculars). Thank goodness! It's vital for zooming as handshake will really spoil many shots.
items on Amazon.com. Updated hourly. 
