I bought a new 12X optical zoom camera.

[Umbra]

It's the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5. Early Christmas present and I really like it. :)

More info. (http://reviews.cnet.com/Panasonic_Lumix_DMC_FZ5/4505-6501_7-31289074.html)

[jdt141]

that. is. sweet.

how much did it run you, might i ask?

[HereComes30]

DAMN YOU!! That is the camera that I have been eyeing up for some time! Just kidding about the damn you part. Good to hear of someone that bought it and liked it. Every review of cameras I have read with a 10x or greater optical zoom all have had the Panasonic at the top of the list. The lens is supposed to be incredibly good and you can take a lot of high zoom pictures that are crystal clear thanks to the image stabilizer. I have also heard that there are a lot of manual features on it that you could only find on an SLR.

I have been kind of back and forth between this one and the Canon S2. Panasonic is cheaper and probably just as good of a camera, but Canon is the best of the best. Someone told me the other day though that Panasonic has been the leader in digital video cameras for years now and it is basically the same technology on the digital cameras so they were able to make a quality product even though they are not known for making cameras like Canon or Nikon. Plus the lens quality like I said is top notch.

So have you taken a lot of pictures? Printed any? How do they look? Taken pictures in different lighting and under different circumstances? Perform well in all of them? How is the battery life? Hope you bought rechargeables.

[HereComes30]

oh...and is this the model that has the flash hot shoe on top? the 5 MP? They make one with and one without (about $100 or so difference in price I think too) and they also make some that are as big as 8 MP but I have heard the quality is not as good on them for some reason.

[Umbra]

Jdt141, it cost about $406 at Circuit City. But I sold my old camera on eBay, and that cut the price down to $250.

HereComes30, the pictures I have taken look good so far. The camera has tons of features my older(crappier) Gateway camera lacked. The pictures come in jpeg and the tiff file format. The camera comes with one rechargeable battery and a charger(I didn't want to buy double AA rechargeable batteries). The battery life is about two to three hundred shots, I believe. My older Gateway camera only took eighty, if that.

You might find it annoying that you have to take the battery out of the camera and place it into the charger, but it's not that big of a deal to me. Some people complain about the flash because you have to push a button for the flash to pop up, but I kind of like it that way for some reason.

[HereComes30]

Well for that price it sounds like you got the one without the hot shoe on top. Right now that one is $467 and the one you got is $349 before tax. Buying a 4 pack of rechargeable batteries and a fast charger for $30-40 might not be a bad investment. Nothing worse than wanting to take pics of something and having a dead battery and no back up.

How are the pictures coming out when you are using the zoom lense at maximum capacity? Clear? Crisp? Image stabilizer work well? Just curious.

[Umbra]

Yeah, no hotshoe. So far, the images are good. Much better than my other camera. For movies you can't zoom in while you're recording, and you're forced to use 320X240 for the maximum size.