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Check out the quality of the tests in Panasonic's favour here against
a DSLR (Canon) and the Sony R1 with the large sensor.
The Panasonic may let noise get way out of hand, but it's lens and
sharpness seem to really come though. This leaves open the
possibility to correct (carefully) noise using a program like Neat
Image such that you lose no noticeable fine detail and thus keep
the overall quality of the shot.

Pay particular attention to the corner shots with the lens
wide open.

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/SonyR1/index.shtml

Rich wrote:
> Check out the quality of the tests in Panasonic's favour here against
> a DSLR (Canon) and the Sony R1 with the large sensor.
> The Panasonic may let noise get way out of hand, but it's lens and
> sharpness seem to really come though. This leaves open the
> possibility to correct (carefully) noise using a program like Neat
> Image such that you lose no noticeable fine detail and thus keep
> the overall quality of the shot.
>
> Pay particular attention to the corner shots with the lens
> wide open.
>
> http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/SonyR1/index.shtml

Agreed. Also the Panasonic/Leica lens also has a much greater zoom range
than the Canon lens, which would normally cause one to expect a slight loss
in performance over the range, yet these figures bear out the fact that this
particular (Panasonic/Leica) lens is quite remarkable.

Used in "normal" lighting conditions at ISO 80-100, I would challenge any
existing digital SLR to beat the FZ30, and as you rightly say, using Neat
Image to enhance the shot if noise is a problem really eliminates the
difference between this camera and other, far more expensive models.

I personally use the slightly older FZ20 with the same lens, and am
astounded by the results, particularly at longer zoom levels, where the
anti-shake system comes into it's own.

Dennis.