I am about to travel around the world and want an alternative to my Pentax K10D, particularly when wishing to be unobtrusive in third-world countries. First, I spent some time with the Panasonic LX2 -same camera as the Leica at less than half the price -which has some unique features and seems to be a terrific camera. BUT it won't go into a shirt pocket because the marvelous Leica lens protrudes. At a hefty (!) 7.8 oz, it weighs 56% more than the Optio Z10's 5 oz. The Optio is so small that there is nothing to hold onto. The Panasonic is better in that respect, but significantly bulkier.
I had just about decided to send both cameras back when I realized that I hadn't even looked at the few pix I had taken with the Optio. So I duly transferred them to my Mac and was absolutely astonished by the results. For reasons I don't understand, the Optio seems to handle subtle shades in the sky and clouds better than the K10.
The bottom line: The Optio produces razor-sharp pictures, even when using the 7x zoom hand-held at a slow shutter speed. Given some of the negative comments in these pages, I really didn't expect that. The design of the camera is superb. I only wish there were some semblance of a grip to hold onto.
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