Luminous landscape

Panasonic is coming on strong in the digital camera market with quite a number of new camera introductions in Q3, 2006. TheL1 DSLRis a brand new offering, while two others which caught my eye are refreshes of previous versions. The FZ50 is an update to the popular FZ-30, while the LX2 is a refresh of the unique LX1.
The following are quick-take reviews of these two new cameras. Not full reviews, not even field reports, but simply my impressions after spending a week of casual shooting with both cameras.
Super-Telephoto

I've become a big fan of the so-called super-telephoto genre of digicams. I recently reviewed theCanon Powershot S3 IS, and found its long lens (along with high quality movie mode) to be very amenable to travel and snapshot shooting.
There's an old saying among photography instructors that "if your picture aren't good enough, you're not close enough". With cameras having the equivalent of a 400mm+ lens at the long end, in something that bulks less than a shou...