Jim Apilado wrote: > Panasonic does make a digital camera, the LZ1, I think is the model. It > sports a Leica Elmarit zoom lens - 12X optical! It even has image > stabilization to assist using the 12X zoom. Now if only Pentax came out > with a camera like this.
Don't get your hopes up: It might be the end of Pentax! Seriously, the only thing that is "Leica-like" about this Panasonic camera is the name on the lens. It may have had some Leica input to the optical design (and even that is far from certain) but it is definitely not made by Leica. The only company that makes a competent 12X zoom lenses is Angenieux. They only make them for movie and TV cameras and charge tens of thousands of dollars for them. In consumer-grade cameras, optical quality reduces with increasing zoom multipliers, so you can be sure that this Panasonic is junk. There is a more "upmarket" Panasonic camera that is sold with a "Leica" badged lens, with a more modest zoom range, It is also sold in a slightly different version under the Leica brand name. There has been a lot of interest in this camera because of the Leica brand name and "Leica" lens with a manual focus facility, but the verdict of users is that it is a very disappointing performer. It is now being sold at heavily discounted prices. Leica rushed into the co-operation with Panasonic after its digital joint venture with Fuji collapsed in acrimony. That happened when Fuji began making the X-pan body and lenses for Hasselblad. It is to be hoped that the second generation of Panasonic-Leica digital cameras is rather more competent (and desirable) than the first. Pentax have nothing to fear, so far! John
