I believe this is Craig's next camera (he has no excuse not to upgrade).

Funny you should mention this, Ken. I was telling Mitch about this very camera this morning (at the Auto-X) and I was thinking about what might keep me from upgrading.

The answer came to me while I was attempting to photograph Mitch driving his WRX. I was using his Olympus C-2100, the same camera I've used for several years now, and it finally dawned on me -- my next digital camera will be a true digital SLR. Why? Well, I don't think I'll be satisfied with a camera that zooming is reduced to moving a lever and waiting for the lens to move. I need the fast response of a manual control (slide or twist, I don't care) lens barrel. If this Panny has that, then I'm interested -- if not, then I don't think I'll even consider it.

Plus, at only 4 MP, it hardly seems worth upgrading to it. If it were 6, now...

Interesting, Craig. Yes, a digital SLR is the way to go, as I have done it myself, but you take a huge beating in cost (it's a major investment). I just can't see anyone doing it cheapter than $2500 right now, and it's more likely somewhere between $3000 to $5000 for the complete system (including accessories).

Panasonic lists the MSRP for this camera as $999. Is there another model for $599?

That's weird. It was listed as $599 over the weekend, but now it's listed as $999. Let me find out what's going on.

I just talk to a Panasonic rep, and it's a mistake. It's still $599.00 SMRP. So, the street price should be somewhat lower. I think this is going to be a great camera at the price point. If I were looking for a digital proconsumer camera, this would be my pick when it comes out.

I agree -- if I were looking for a fancy consumer camera, this would be at the top of my list.

I agree with you guys, but at the price it will be on my xmas list. Has the camera been released yet. Looking around its hard to find a true review. Dont know when it will be released here down under in Australia but we can't wait

Cheers

Fitze

It's supposed to be release sometime in November. Cross your fingers, and it should be out soon.

I was looking hard at the DMC-FZ1K - the 2MP version - when this, the 4MP version came out. Im using an Olympus 1.3 mp cam now - I dont print images - just web site stuff, email and my own archives. Should I go with the 4MP version? Thx

I think 4MP will serve you well for your future investment. Granted that if you don't print, even 2MP will be sufficient, but 4MP will guard against any future scenarios such as wanting to print great looking 5x7 pictures.

What is the largest print you can make and expect good results from a 4MP camera. I'm using a 2MP now and find that most any crop and enlargement produces too much blur.

In order to get the film print quality, you would want to get 300 pixles per inch or 400 ppi (now this is different from printer manufacturers dpi measurement). So, for 4MP, that would mean you can get for 300 ppi, 8.16 x 5.44 inches and for 400 ppi, you get 6 x 4 inches. For a 6MP camera, you would get 10 x 6.67 inches for 300 ppi.

Actually, 300 pixels per inch is about the maximum resolution the human eye can distinguish in a color photo, so you may find resolutions significantly below 300 PPI to be acceptable to you -- it's a very personal/individual threshold. Me, personally, I find 200 PPI to be more than fine. In fact, my 2.1 MP camera, the Olympus C-2100 UZ, permits me to print very respectable 8x10 images. At 1600x1200, that's around 150 PPI, yet I've never had someone look at one of my 8x10's and say "hmm...looks kinda pixely."

So don't use 300 PPI as a magic rule -- get a big photo (say from a 6 MP camera) and print out 4 photos using a service like ofoto.com or shutterfly.com at 300 PPI, 250 PPI, 200 PPI, and 150 PPI. Then, you can compare all 4 side-by-side and make your own conclusions about what satisfies you. After all, why spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on equipment when it's not necessary to make you happy?

Actually, 300 ppi is the lower end of maximum human visibility whereas 400 ppi is the higher end. There is an excellent discussion of this at http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/scandetail.html.

When you print 8 x 10 prints using the maximum printer resolution available for the inkjet printers (2400 dpi to 4800 dpi), you can definitely see differences between 200 and 300 ppi, and at times 400 dpi using premium photographic papers.