Rating: 
Summary: THIS CAMERA IS A SUPERB INVESTMENT.
Review: I purchased the Lumix FZ10 after I returned a Fuji 3.0 megapixel which supposedly pushed resolution to 6.0. I have developed pictures from both cameras and there is no comparison.
This camera truly outperformed all of my expectations. There are many options to push your experience into the "professional mode" which I have not even tried yet. I have not had this for a week and yet have many excellent pictures which I have shown off to friends and family. One problem I have had with all cameras is trying to get good pictures of my ragdoll cats without red or irredescent eyes. I captured their big blue eyes and did not even use the red eye reduction feature. The flash angle is perfect to impart a professional quality to your photos. It is true that the lens cap is not attached, but if anyone passes this camera for that reason they are truly missing out on a great opportunity. I feel that my pictures compare with Canon T70 which I used for years. If you research this camera at the digicam review sites, they all agree that it is an excellent buy. One very important feature on this camera is the optical image stabilizer. I took some existing light pics which should have been taken with a tripod and yet they were perfect because this camera stabilizes camera shake so well. I expect to keep this camera for many years. Don't let the 4.0 megapixel make you pass this up. By adding the Leica lenses, the image quality is superb and may surpass many higher megapixel cameras. I am looking forward to trying many of the added features soon. I know I will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Love at first sight
Review: I wanted to go digital, but looked and looked for the perfect first digital camera. My sister put the Panasonic Lumix in my hands, and it was love at first sight. First, the camera is amazingly light for a camera with a zoom equivalent of 400+. Second, the camera never misses a shot, no matter what the light conditions. Yes, I read the manual thoroughly, and yes, the camera can be confused a little when the conditions are dark and there are lights in back of the subject, but not a huge problem, and even most of those shots turned out great. I am in love with this camera, so in love that making the switch to digital was easy and delightful.
Rating: 
Summary: Good camera - terrible manual
Review: I was attracted to this camera for sports and wildlife photography by the combination of a Leica lens and image stabilization. IMO image stabilization an essential at 12X. Unless you're dead, you'll shake.Controls are adequate and, except for the shutter being flat on the top instead of angled, well placed. The plastic body can be overlooked, it seems sturdy. I was annoyed with the SD card being next to the battery until I figured out that it was not meant to be removed for downloading. Card readers don't work = at least mine doesn't. One must download to your PC directly from the camera by using USB. And this is where the manual fails. That fact is never explained and finding out how to download required a lot of patient search. The manual is filled with halfway explanations, assumptions and cross referencing by page number. The quick start gets you through the taking of a photo, but you're on your own from there. They tell you to read the whole thing before you shoot. Like your going to remember everything. Sheeesh. I'm NOT a newcomer to digital photography - I own and use an Oly E-20. I've shot film for fifty years so the terminolgy isn't foreign and I've had a Mac on my desk since 1985. I edit on PE2 and sell prints through small galleries and gift shops. I think English may be a second language for the tech writers who wrote the manual and worse yet, they are probably engineers. Be patient and find yourself rewarded. Panasonic would do well to have the manual edited, but it won't happen so...
Rating:
Summary: Wooow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I've bought this awesome digital camera at amazon.com one month ago, and I've taken hundred of pictures with excellent results, the imaging quality is superb, great sharpness and very low noise levels in night shots. Leica lenses do a very good job as always and give to this camera a professional level. The 12x optical zoom works very well, you have to get used to keep your hands fixed when using the maximum zoom, but with some days of practice, you are gonna get unshake and sharp shots. Its incredible that you can get a 420mm lens with an aperture = 2.8 in the whole range, for less than a one thousand dollar and even the renowned LEICA lenses. What a BARGAIN!!!!
Optical image stabilizer (OIS)is needful with large zoom lenses and Panasonic included it, but in spite of this - you need to have firm hands like I wrote down in the paragraph above.
Panning mode works fine and I enjoy taking pictures with this mode, its quite useful since the only way that you could get this effect was by using a photo editor (not anymore)
Only one drawback, its flash is very weak, so how this camera has a hot shoe, you are gonna be forced to buy an external flash.
I hope Panasonic releases an 8MP digital camera with 12x optical zoom soon... using LEICA LENSES. Im gonna wait fot it eagerly.
Rating:
Summary: Great in-betweener camera, very minor drawbacks
Review: I've never owned a digital camera, but I've had a Canon AE-1 for about 20 years. My wife and I wanted to get a digital camera that we could share (manual for me, point and shoot for her) and the Panasonic DMC-FZ10 seems to be the perfect compromise. The picture quality and color fidelity are truly amazing. I'm happy with the ability to adjust almost all of the settings, and the gun-and-run style pictures are great too! Two minor annoyances with this camera: - The lens cap isn't attached. We're going to lose it sooner rather than later;
- Low light settings: The camera sometimes struggles to autofocus in low-light conditions sans flash. This won't affect you if you're using your own settings, but be aware that low light point-and-click isn't perfect; also in auto mode, the LCD is almost impossible to read in the dark. Other than that, we're thrilled with the camera. If you truly need an SLR with swappable lenses and full control, spend more for the Canon Digital Rebel. If you just want point and click, spend less and get an A70. But for the in-betweener, this camera really hits the sweet spot.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Digital Camera
Review: I,ll make this short and to the point, this is a superb digital camera, nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Great Prosumer camera!
Review: Lumix DMC-FZ10S 4Mpel, 12x optical zoom, non-pocket camera, $550ish Wow! Finally an affordable camera with MORE features, functions and image quality than my old 35mm SLR camera. At about $550 this has to be the best semi-pro camera around. The specs are impressive, but the ease of use brings the full potential to your fingertips. While it can take great pictures as a point-and-click camera - easily beating the Canon G3-G5 - the real power comes when you begin going manual. Conventional wisdom holds that you should buy a digital camera from an established film camera company. Well, this camera combines the excellence of a lens/camera company - Leica - with a great Electronics Company - Panasonic - the best of both worlds! For a sound byte: The Lumix takes GREAT pictures! The lens is an incredible 12x optical zoom (equivalent to 35-420mm 35mm) that works well at both ends of the range (yes it does have a bit of chromatic aberration at full zoom, but only at a 200% blow-up on the screen). The macro works down to a few inches! The lens is rather fast for the zoom - f2.8 and the equivalent ASA is 50 to 400. So a good lens, a good sensor, then comes the really great part: the electronics. It has a very low shutter lag, fabulous MANUAL focus (beating all the SLR's that I have seen!), Image stabilization that makes the handheld 12x optical work (don't try handheld at 1/30sec full zoom, but hey what do you expect for a 420mm lens??), a delay timer for both tripod/handheld AND run-and-get-in-the picture, fast multishot, exposure bracketing, a red eye reduction that works, full 30fps movie mode, great review functions on camera and everything in the viewfinder - for those of us needing reading glasses, this is a dream! I could go into detail on all the features, but that is just an owner's manual read. It works and easy to control, at least for a right hander (I'm guessing it would be a pain for a leftie.) I wish they had more controls on the compression - less compression would be nice since in low light the compression artifacts do show up. The 4MPEL image sensor really seems to be a good capture device. Bottom Line: For a serious amateur, this is a great camera. For a pro, this might take the place of many SLR's. An real amateur can go all automatic and get great pictures and have room to move to better pictures with manual later. It doesn't fit in your pocket, but it takes great pictures! Jerry This is the fifth digital camera I have owned. I replaced my Canon IS90 with the Lumix and am pleased I did. I still look longingly at the Nikon D100 6MP and the Canon EOS-10D, but I can't justify the difference in price to compare to the Lumix.
Rating:
Summary: The best digicam for the money right now!
Review: The best cam for the money and has every potential to become the next 2100UZ as far as legacy is concerned. The lens and IS are 1st rate and you can get beautiful crisp photos in almost no light although focus lock in those conditions can be tricky. The zoom and the digital zoom are all very usable and I have gotten nice photos at full digital zoom. Overall Panasonic did their homework for the most part albeit some minor annoyances I listed below. But there are no perfect digital cameras out there. But couple this cam with the 12x Leica/IS combo and beautiful 4MP picture quality, many user available settings and you have a photographer's dream here. Minor gripes I have-
Handgrip needs to be bigger.
No eyecup, although a workaround is available as the Nikon 2939 cup.
Proprietary battery. Wish this could have taken AA NIMH's.
Lowlight focus can be tricky at times. Other than that once you get used to the possibilities of this cam you won't regret getting it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: There was no other camera that could compete with this when it came out, and now only its sucessors from Panasonic can do so (well them and a $900 Nikon, but I'd rather save my money). This camera is that good. Is it perfect? No, not at all. I could write a lengthy listing of gripes, but they pale in comparisons to the positives:
A high performance Leica designed (Panasonic manufactured) lens
Opitical image stabilizer
Fast burst mode
12x zoom
Solid Japanese built body
All in all, you will have fun taking great shots at birthday parties, zoos, fireworks, parks, concerts, and many other places--I did. Why? The lens, it allows for blur free images thanks to its wide aperture and image stabilizer, and it also allows you to get close to the action with a tremendous zoom. Other camers may offer 10x zooms, but the lack the image stabilizer so everything is big AND BLURRY. Buy this or the newer FZ-15 or FZ-20 from Panasonic--you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Great specs, just that ...
Review: This is a top of the line point'n shoot camera. Without any doubt the 12x optical zoom with image stabilizing and fast 2.8f aperture along the whole zoom range of 35-420 mm (35mm equiv.) are the icing on the cake. Nevertheless I'm slightly dissapointed about this camera because the specs read like my dream camera and the engineers from Panasonic just couldn't keep it together. Why? - I will cover this later. I was so anxious about getting my set together that I bought a bag first going by the size of the FZ1 - big mistake. The FZ10 is about double the size. Definitly no camera to slip in your pocket. Battery are pretty expensive, about 50$ a piece. A good replacement, not from Panasonic but way cheaper and even higher in the mAh rating is AC-CGAS002 (the barn were you get 'em from is great). Charge and running time equal almost 1hr. The Tripod adapter blocks access to the battery and memory compartment. In dcresource the macro is described to work only in the automatic macro mode. So you couldn`t go by your own settings (manual). Good news - not true-. What is also not described in the manual, the camera does the same macro in manual mode. Literally up to the lense, almost touching it, with super sharp images. Personally, I do prefer the manual mode for several reasons and this is where my dissapointment starts. In a dim light situation, still enough to take a decent picture, the LCD is pitch black. It is not broken, that's just the way it is. The techs from Panasonic told me something about achery techniques and how to shoot over the body. I call it a "Misconception". Also the brightness of the flash is not displayed, saying the LCD should get brighter when flash is activated. Still you get nice pictures - with dim light focusing slightly advanced to some other digital pointers- just you don't see the composition and focusing. I consider this the major drawback of this camera. Surprisingly enough though, if you switch to Automatic mode the LCD display in the very same dim light situation with exactly the same setting, is fine. Aperture- or Shutter priority are also good in this respect. I say it again, this applies only to dim light situations in manual mode. In standard light situations you won't notice.
Talking about low light situations, the flash is quite impressiv. Gives you also the option to compensate (-2/+2). This is very helpful if you don't wanna compensate the flash by shutter/aperture. Lense cap has no string to hold it to the body - risk of losing it. I am an avid Photoshop user. So I like the auto braket function to take 3 consecutive shots with different esposures for different layers in the software. Still after every shot you have to kick the bracket in again. There is no button to enable this function permanently like cameras for only a fraction of the price do. I wouldn't mind that if it were not so long winded to get to that function. Between changing the shutter/aperture in Manual mode, engaging the bracket to -1/+1 and back again, it is necessary to push 9 buttons. (Wanna count? exposure/dial up/3x dial right/3xdial up/exposure.) And this after every shot, huhhh. Most people won't mind, but it takes only jpeg format. No non-compression formats available. This camera lets me take considerably more pictures (about 165) with 256mb than my Dimage s414 (about 125), which also happens to be a 4 MP camera - each camera in the best jpeg settings. With best settings this camera takes file sizes wich average about 1,5MB (Dimage S414 about 2MB). OK not every manufacture uses compression to the same extend, and in this setting Panasonic has surely found a nice compromise between quality and compression. Still I would be happier if Panasonic had tweaked its compession less aggressively, in order to achieve higher quality (but lager file size). Expecially since non-compression is missing and this camera is supposingly more oriented towards the prosumer section. Nevertheless the picture quality is superb across the whole zoom range (the lense seems to make up for it).
I read reviews were people complained about noise. I figure they chose the wrong ISO (Auto ISO?). Try to use 100, 50 if possible. Everything from ISO 200 on gets indeed noisy, so is it with other cameras. And the fast lense 2.8f over the whole zoom range together with the Image Stabilizer give you quite some options here.
The image stabilizer works great. I think this feature should become as much of an standard as it is for camcorders. This from Panasonic should be a wake up call for the other manufactures to install it in there ultrazooms.
Very positive is the overall speed of the camera. SD memory might help it. Run-up, Burst mode and time between shots is very fast. High Burst gets you 4-5 shots in 2sec. After that you are ready again after about 4 sec. I consider this to be very fast. The only issue in the Burst mode is that it freezes the picture in the LCD screen. Burst makes sense for moving objects. And that is were you find it almost impossible to keep your object in focus when you just see a series of taken pictures with a delay of about 0.5 seconds.
The purple fringing, which often comes along with extreme zoom lenses seems to be moderate. I haven't seen any so far with taken lots of pictures in situations where this is supposed to be most present, like against the sun with darker objects in front. Still it is mentioned in some of the reviews. Verdict:
Even thought I wrote critically this shouldn`t distract from the fact that this is a state of the art point'n shoot camera with a great Leica lense and a stabilazation system you won't find in any other model of this category.
So giving away some of my high expectations this is still an excellent camera which will epeal to the advanced photographer with a need for an extreme zoom.
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