I just bought the above mentioned camera from a friend. Since I didn't have access to the internet, I wasn't able to research it, but I bought it anyway. He said it had been used about five times, and it looked new. I really like it so far. 18 times optical zoom is really nice. I wish it had more than 8 megapixels though.

Anyone else heard of this camera. Is it going to be a paper weight after a few uses?

Hi Rob, welcome back. That is a good camera. You can read a review here.

Don't fall prey to the "pixel hype". There is little if any advantage to cramming more pixels on such a small (1/2.5") sensor; one of the biggest misconceptions in consumer electronics. You would be hard pressed to see any improvement past 6MP on a P&S sized sensor. Enjoy your camera!

What you would see with more pixels is more noise. Most small cameras have absolutely horrible image quality at any ISO above the lowest because they have too many pixels. 6mp will give photo quality 8x10's and w/ perfect exposure, focus, etc will often go 11x14. I've been waiting for the last several years to find a non DSLR camera that will provide decent IQ above 400 ISO. The first one that really is starting to look promising is the new Panasonic G1.

Fred

I couldn't pass it up for $200 though. It just looked to nice of a camera.

The Panasonic G1 is the next best thing to a DSLR because it is a DSLR.

I guess I don't really consider the G1 a DSLR. There's no mirror and no optical viewfinder, which are the defining features of an SLR camera. The lack of mirror, coupled w/ the micro 4/3 sensor make it noticeably smaller than any DSLR I've seen as well.

To me, it's really more like my old Sony 707 (but with interchangeable lenses and a more conventional looking body) than a DSLR.

That aside though, it appears that it will be a very nice camera. I'm waiiting to see the results of the dpreview review. I had high hopes for several other cameras (Sony H9, Canon S5, Fuji S100FS) in the last two years, but none measured up to what I wanted in my next camera.

It seems like bridge cameras have all fallen into the marketing specmanship trap of featuring too many megapixels and too large of a zoom range, both which look good on paper but have an adverse impact on IQ.

Fred

Maybe the difference between DSLR and DSLR is too subtle.

I agree Fred, the G1 is a DSL camera, potentially as "good" as a DSLR except that the "R" part (the mirror and optical viewfinder) is omitted. That's a huge omission but it does permit the designers to make the camera much smaller.

The G1 definitely blurs the line between DSLR's and the rest.

For me, small is an important criteria, right behind quality and features. I used to have a Nikon film SLR, but found over time I stopped taking pictures because I just didn't want to lug it around all the time. It doesn't have to fit in a shirt pocket, but it does have to fit in a small belt pack I use as a camera bag.

Basically what I want is DSLR image quality and features, with point&shoot size and convenience, that isn't asking for too much is it?

Fred

Not from my point of view. In the film days I went down from SLRs to the Ricoh GR1. I realized I mostly used a wide angle anyway.