Well, I'd seen too much not to at least give it a try, so I've been playing with one for a couple of days now. And my bottom line is that its better at what I thought it would be good at than I thought... and its not as bad at the stuff I thought it would be bad at than I thought. There are about three firmware fixes that would solve almost all of my issues with it, but no camera is perfect and, for something this size, this one is pretty damn close. The stuff I don't like I've found ways to work around that aren't ideal but aren't that bad either. I figured I'd try one of these and the LX7 and keep whichever one I found myself picking up. But I don't know if I'm gonna get that far with the LX7 this time around. Based on what I've been seeing, the LX7 will be a really fun little camera to shoot with but I don't think the IQ is gonna compare. The Sony is so good in the basic IQ department that I could see a few cameras showing up in another 1-3 years that would seriously make me reconsider my whole approach. Put this sensor and maybe a slightly wider/faster lens in a slightly larger body with an interface I like better and I might not need a LOT of the other gear I have. I'm sure I'd keep something around for the ultra long and ultra-wide, but give me a 24-90 equivalent with a really good lens and this sensor in a body with a few different features and I'd rarely take anything else out of the house. And I think its only a matter of time. Sony looks like they got the jump on everyone with this camera and I don't expect anyone else to match it in this coming set of releases, but give it a year and let that sensor get out there. Oh jeez.
Zone focus setup is more difficult than it needs to be, but its easy to assign a key to toggle between auto and manual focus. So I can auto-focus on my spot, hit the toggle and put it in manual focus, set the aperture, and go shoot. The exposure comp is an extra click away from what would be ideal in this situation, but its doable for street shooting. And I haven't even begun to figure out its capabilities for things like landscapes and portraits and stuff, but I'm very impressed with the basics. And this is before raw support, so I'm just going on jpegs.
Here are a couple from a bike ride yesterday and a couple more from a street fair last night.
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These three are all at ISO 3200, which just isn't fair. The pixel level isn't great in the really dark night-time scene, but its workable for web-sharing and not too huge prints. My LX5 was good at 400 and I could use 800 in a pinch. This is good at 3200 and I can use 6400 in a pinch - just sick...
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-Ray