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To that end, I'm not getting the Pentax but, at my co-workers researched recommendation, a Panasonic Lumix.


Now you are at exactly the same place I was at two weeks ago -- shopping for a Panasonic Lumix FZ50.

Be very careful where you shop for your camera. The camera sales industry is full of unethical sleazebags who do not have your best interests at heart.

You can see a few of my adventures here and here

Trust me when I tell you that the best price isn't necessarily the best deal!

From the research I have done (considerable!) on the FZ50, you will like it very much. The only downside I see with it is that with the small (physical size) CCD sensor, and the overly-large amount of megapixels (10.1) crammed onto it, noise may be a problem at ISO settings greater than 400. Some claim anything over 200 is noisy, but I don't see that in any reasonably sized sample pictures. (By noise, I am not referring to audible sound, but rather artifacts and colors washing into each other in the picture) Panasonic addresses this with their Venus III noise reduction algorithm, but the end result is noise reduction at the expense of image sharpness. I think, given the choice, I'd take the noise.

tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"