One heck of a digital camera deal

This is a great deal:  Lumix FZ5

Lumix is Panasonic's brand name for their "fancy" cameras.  It is a great deal for $350.  5MP (which is all you need), 12X optical zoom w/ image stabilization and a very nice Leica lens.  Also comes with a free 256MB SD card (or $24 off a bigger card).  The 256MB card should be able to hold around 95 pictures at max resolution.

All of the reviews I have seen say the camera is great.  DP Review Steve's Digicams Imaging Resource

If you know anyone looking for a digital camera, get this one.  I'm thinking about getting one for myself.  My Olympus E-100 is getting a little too old.

Hat Tip: BoingBoing

Welcome Instapundit readers! There isn't much here, but please take a look around.

UPDATE: I ended up buying the replacement for the FZ5, the new Lumix FZ7.  It has 6MP instead of 5MP and DVD quality 30fps video.

If you want to see some pictures I have taken with the camera, go to the main page and scroll down to my posts from San Diego.

Comments

[vexare]

I have one, (my third digital camera) and love it. To me the biggest critical complaint about how lightweight it feels (usually in terms of feeling 'cheap' or 'unsubstantial') is a bonus. Very easy to sling around. Yes I have dropped it, but because of its low mass there was no harm done. Even at full price, I think it is the best all-around digital camera for the money. It lets me take great shots of my Daughter on the soccer field with the 12x optical zoom and stabilization, and has a good enough low-light capability to take pictures of my brothers-in-law's band at club gigs. I bought it in September at a AAFES (Military Exchange) store as a marked down "opened-return" item with an additional 30% off, so I only paid $287 for it (So it was REALLY a bargain for me!). As near as I can tell the only thing wrong with it was the manual was in French - and you DO need the manual to get the most out of it. No problem: downloaded a PDF copy of the manual in English 5 minutes after bringing it home. Wish this camera had come out in May so I could have taken it sailing in the Windwards - it would have put the HP I used to shame.

[Visitor]

I'm seriously considering buying this camera, but my one greatest issue in buying any digital camera is the shutter lag. Trying to take pictures of restless dogs causes me no end of difficulty with my current digital camera, which has an awful shutter lag. Can anyone address this issue in connection with the FZ5? (Please do not confuse shutter lag with shutter speed. I already know to prefocus with a half-press of the shutter release.) Thanks.

[ErikZ]

I have the FZ-5

I was going to buy the previous model, until I saw their next models were coming out soon.

Buying a digicam is a rough experence if you actually care about what you're getting. You have to decide what features you think are important and stick with those. What was important to me?

Image Stabilzation. Without it, you can't take advantage of high resolutions without a tripod.

Picture accuracy. Photoshop is nice, but I don't want to have to run every photo I take though it.

Zoom lens. A camera with powerful zoom lens is just *fun*

This camera beats all others in those repects.

I've taken photos and had them professionally printed out to 11*14, they're now hanging on my wall.

I bought a 1GB card to go with it. (That's the max it can hold.) and spent a total of 500$ on the whole thing. It's still worth that price now.

Check out my site, I've posted my best pictures there at full resolution. Oh! It comes with panoramic stiching software. It works great once you update it to the latest version.