Panasonic

As one of the rising stars of the digital camera world Panasonic has a much larger presence than last year’s PMA, and naturally there’s a real buzz around the company’s first digital SLR, the LC1. Sure, it’s an Olympus E-330 in a different jacket, but it looks – and feels – like a Leica, and the new lens (Vario-Elmarit 14-50 mm F2.8-F3.5 ASPH) is simply gorgeous, and those of us whose photography goes back more than 5 years are delighted to see an aperture ring back where it belongs… on the lens.

Visitors to the booth are also getting their first chance to see and try out the FZ7 ultra-zoom reviewed here last week and the amazingly compact TZ1, the first image stabilized big zoom camera that could ever be described as even approaching ‘pocketable’. The FX01 (a very compact successor to the popular FX9) is also here, as are the three budget models (LS2, LZ3, LZ5) launched last month at CES.