I am very happy with mine as unconventional as it is. No viewfinder, no preview screen, etc. On the plus side, it captures great images and HD video and is rated to 180ft depth. Lens and cases are replaceable at 2 for $20. on lens and the whole case is $40. spare battery $20. takes a 32GB chip though I use two 8GB chips. It is nothing like a point and shoot but excels for what it is designed for. As far as lens quality goes this 127 0r 170 degree wide angle is very forgiving. Time lapse on the fly is also great at 2,10,30, or 60 second intervals.

I have been playing aroung with different mounts and the one that I am most content with is 4 32.5" arrow shafts with shockcord threaded through to make a Pyramid and the camera on top of that shooting over my helmet. This same system would also work for your night lighting question a couple of weeks ago.

Now the big dilemma is finding time to edit this stuff tightly. I will post something soon.

Best,

Reg

: Malcolm,

: I shoot professionally (video and stills) I use a Panasonic digital
: video camera with the Leica lens system. My daughter has a Lumix
: (land version)

: The Leica lenses that one sees on Panasonic are made in Japan.
: Leica says that the manufacturing is to Leica's specs. I have
: not had any reason to doubt this, as the images out of both
: cameras are superb. Leica glass, along with their close
: competitors, Carl Zeiss and Schneider, have always been known
: for crisp, contrast biased images with terrific color
: saturation. I shot Leicas in the military and used Hassleblad
: (Zeiss glass) for many years until the digital wave pushed film
: into the history books. I used Schneider for all my large format
: work.

: Panasonic and Sony both got very savvy and formed partnerships with
: established lens builders like Leica and Zeiss very early on.
: Canon and Nikon were already building their own glass for stills
: and then video.

: My experience with the Panasonic stuff is that it will probably not
: be the lens quality that keeps one from creating great images,
: if you buy a rig at the higher end of the category. Cheaper
: cameras can have marginal glass. The zoom range for the consumer
: cameras is determined by demand and price point marketing. Leica
: could easily spin-out a much more powerful zoom package with a
: wider wide and longer tele capability if they wanted to, but it
: would make the camera price point fly out to the point where SLR
: cameras are the smart buy.

: Just for the heck of it, I'd suggest that you look at the products
: from GoPro. http://www.goprocamera.com/ These little dudes have
: become a standard now for action sports shooting, be it stills,
: or HD video. Every guy I know who shoots onboard sailing, board
: sports (water or snow), skiing, shallow water diving, helmet
: mounted setups for biking, hang-gliding, racing cars with
: fixtured, on-board mounts, etc... they all use these things.

: Let's see some shots and clips.