Before this camera I have mainly used just point and shoots and was looking for a step up. This camera is pretty much everything I hoped for. With the single exception that the 1080p HD video is only good in some situations. At recording at 17 mbps it too little information to record lots of quick movements in full detail. Thus in those situations you get some blurring. For what's every it is worth, I have read rumors that it will be upgraded to 24 or 28 mbps in a future firmware update. So this issue could go away in the future. It still does excellent video in all situations at 720p.
As far as pictures go, the camera is very intuitive as to how to take good pictures with its many presets, but it also give you lots of room to take greater and greater control as your photography knowledge increases. I would highly recommend reading all of the owners manual if you want to get the most out of this camera. And if you are new to the more advanced world of photography, once again after you have had some time to experiment with it. Handling some of my friends DSLR's this camera is indeed much lighter and diminutive, but if you are used to a point and shoot there is certainly some added bulk. If you do also opt to also get the "Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 A-spherical Pancake Lens", that tiny yet high quality lens turns the camera into something that you can easily fit in a jacket or cargo shorts pocket. Keep in mind that the camera that just blows point and shoots out of the water in terms of picture and video quality. The pancake lens will also allow you to take better shots and video with low light, especially without a tripod. The kit lens only goes to f/4 in wide and f/5.3 in telephoto. Just the same the kit lens is very capable and better over all for video (basically silent AF(auto focus), and good optical zoom range), but weights more then the camera body. Which should tell you something about how light the camera itself is given its capabilities. The camera and kit lens together weight about 2lbs. Which is at least a third less to anything you will find with a DSLR and similar wide/telephoto lens combination. And the DSLR and lens won't AF while filming 1080p or 720p like this camera and lens combo will.
I bought a scandisk 16gig class 10 card along with the camera and have no problem with buffering in any of the shooting or video situations. Anything slower then a Class 10 and you probably will run into issues if you plan on shooting 1080p video with this camera.
A few other quick mentions:
*LCD screen flips out and reverse so you can see it on the lens side too (good for when using the timer function)
*TV play back features for slide shows and videos are good (include the the box is a WVGA cable, but not an HDMI cable)
*Manual said that battery was good for about 320 shots. I got 480 and I still used AFS
All in all I would recommend this camera and kit lens to anyone who wants a highly capable camera in a diminutive package.Get more detail about Panasonic DMC-GH1 12.1MP Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Camera with 1080p HD Video.
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