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http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08072 ... niclx3.asp

Anyone else intrigued by this?

Supposedly the sensor is tweaked for low-noise and high dynamic range. At 1/1.63" it certainly looks promising. Maybe Panasonic has finally got their noise problems ironed out.

I saw that too, but if you check the forums on dpreview.com, someone commented that the increased MP count makes it the equivalent of a 1/1.8" sensor. So it may turn out to be a wash. However, they said the LX2 has the 16:9 weirdo sized sensor so this "more square" one may be ok.

I'm not holding my breath, the Venus IV processor has not impressed me one bit so far. It is better than its predecessor, but I don't know if the noise problem was the processor hamstrung by poor sensors, or the chip+firmware is just not good enough yet.

The lack of a longer zoom sort of bothers me, and they don't have a tele attachment? The only thing left is to use 3MP or less and use the Extended Zoom which is just cropping not true optical zoom.

Only time and reviews can tell I suppose.

In other news, the FX150 is sort of weird, "manual mode" = arbitrary shutter speed setting? How about aperture and shutter priority? Sometimes who **** knows what shutter speed to set? So for fast shots I can just set like 1/1000sec shutter, but for night shots how am I supposed to know? Can't you just give me those larger apertures and you deal with the shutter? I find this odd. Guess A/S mode they are leaving for the LX series (or just the flagship FX500).

I'm actually slightly more intrigued by the Casio EX-Z150. It managed to stick with 8.1MP so I think the sensor size/MP count combo may be more reasonable. Again we will have to see actual reviews.

Another shocker so far is the lack of anything from Canon. I know the big wave of new cams is supposed to come in Sept/Oct for Photokina, but looks like everybody else is jumping the gun. What can be happening now?

The FX150 does seem a little oddly placed, what with RAW output, some kind of shutter-priority mode and megapixels up the wazoo. I wish camera manufacturers would ease up on the artificial product differentiation. Theoretically it would be possible to build the "ultimate p&s" but nobody thinks it's worth the effort I guess. It's hard to find a single camera without some kind of major flaw.

I came this > < close pulling the trigger on the Fuji F100fd. It's one of the closest to the ideal compact P&S if not for the pink banding and battery issues. A Canon SD860 IS with a larger sensor and A/S mode will be close to perfect as well. The Panasonic FX500/520 comes close as well, but it is also undone by the smallish sensor and noise issues. I'm waiting for Canon to do something serious. Every other brand has revised versions of sub-35mm compact cams out and Canon only has that one (I expect a 28mm A-series, hopefully with a 1/1.7" sesnor but not up the MP count).

Edit:

Photography Blog has posted pictures taken from a pre-production unit. "Reducing the size (at the request of Panasonic)" - what a joke. That is alteration! I can almost smell the water colour noise if you go sniff the actual pictures. Also in a few pictures I think I see the usual red bias that is prevalent in Panasonic cameras.

We will see how the production units pan out. I am not holding my breath.

Today's shortbread: link.

People probably signed NDAs to not post pictures in full res, so the night shots mostly look good. If only they have higher zooms I would definitely be looking at this one myself.