Panasonic FZ50 Initial Impressions

Here's what I have observed so far:

- the camera is large for a digicam - but it feels just right
- sure do like the real zoom ring and focusing ring
- looks like manual focus is going to be quite realistic on this camera
- the electronic viewfinder is quite decent and is easier to use in the sun than others I have used
- compared to the Sony H9 which I checked out - the LCD screen is 2 inches instead of 3, but the electronic view finder is substantially larger - for me that works
- on the H9, the camera is small enough that I kept pressing the flash button with my hand - no such problems with the Panasonic.
- two thumbwheels means that you can set f stop and shutter speed easily - nice
- raw files take about 4 seconds to save - not a problem for the kind of work I do - a jpeg is saved at the same time which I could do without and have to manually throw out once the files are transferred - will have to figure out how to work around that
- so far, it looks like raw rescues hghlights to some degree but not perhaps as much as with my Canon DSLR's.

I have already made a 13X19 print from a two image stitch which looks perfect so it will do what I need. I also have a black and white print from an image downloaded from Imaging Resource printed at 300 dpi which is tack sharp to the corners, free of grain and with excellent tonality - very impressive.