[friendlydragon]

I researched very carefully before I bought this camera. Because of its wider zoom, I would have bought the FujiFilm FinePix S9600 if it had had image stabilisation, but as it didn't I opted for the Lumix.

The Lumix had everything I could hope for in a camera: 8MP sensor, Leica super-zoom, manual zoom control, manual focussing lupe, image stabilisation and had received great reviews.

Perhaps I was being naïve when I was deeply disappointed by the results; my camera had an 8MP sensor and had cost as much as an entry-level DSLR, so why were the results so poor?

When I was an amateur in the 60s I fully understood the maxim "a good big-un will always beat a good little-un". However, when I chose the Lumix I had not appreciated one thing: although it looks like, feels like and operates like a DSLR, it had a sensor barely larger than a frame of Super-8 film; where a true DSLR will have a sensor typically 368 square mm, my Lumix's sensor measured only around 35 square mm, around one tenth the area -- a factor not mentioned as significant in the reviews I'd read!

DSLR-like cameras are great fun to use; they could also deliver great pictures... if manufacturers put in a bigger sensor. Until that time I'm afraid they're all hype.

I'll be trading up as soon as I can afford to.