This Camera makes taking pictures Super FUN!

I recently purchased a Panasonic FZ30K and I must say I am super happy with the camera and my choice. I won't bore you with the technicals (there are plenty of those reviews out there) but I will say what makes me love it so much and go over a few key features:
1) Lens--Obviously the Lens and Zoom are unmatched in the class. The option of using tele/wideangle lens attachments only increases the incredible flexibility of the camera. The image stabilization is incredible, don't buy a camera w/o it. The all internal zoom is also a huge feature when doing macro work up close.
2) Awesome shutter lag (virtually none). This is huge as my old digital took forever to snap the shot, resulting in many missed shots. Also the speed, nearly 2 shots per second, 3 in burst mode is amazing.
3) NO Startup time. Turn it on and it's ready in half a second. No other digital camera turns on faster. Again this is huge for capturing spontaneous shots.
4) Great LCD. At 2" it's big and the resolution and brightness are the best in the industry. The fact that it now tilts and flips is also huge, allowing you to compose shots overhead, down low or right in front of you.
5) Full Manual Controls. Go ahead, set it up exactly as you want, controlling everything including zoom, focus, aperture, shutter, ISO, you name it! Or not, just turn it to autofocus or one of the many convenient "Scene" modes and hand it to just about anybody for great shots.
6) Hot Shoe enabled. Buy an external flash and it makes a fabulous party/wedding camera and eliminates the low light performance issues with this camera, it's only real shortcoming (sort of).
7) Long Battery life. Buy an extra battery and you'll never lack power. They charge fast and last a long time. Not really a standout feature for the camera vs. the competition but it's light years better than replacing AA's every hour.
8) Great Movies! The movie mode of this camera is amazing. Its 680P resolution and 60 frames per second compare well with my Canon Camcorder. Of course memory space is the great limiter here but certainly no DSLR's are offering this mode.

In essence with a 2x tele lens and a .45 Wideangle lens and a few other accessories like a flash this camera can do it all! A comparable set up with a DSLR would be at least $2K-3K and would be far bulkier and heavy to haul around. Set up right the FZ30 leaves little to be desired vs. say the Canon Rebel XT or any DSLR and at a fraction of the overall cost (probably 1/3 to 1/2 as much). The only area of weakness with the camera is its small CCD that results in poor low light performance vs. DSLR's with larger CCD's. On the other hand the small CCD actually results in better images in good light (better Depth of field) and more zoom than would be possible with the larger CCD. So the small CCD is a trade off I'll take any day, plus as stated an external flash will take care of the poor lighting problem very well. There's a reason this camera is getting such buzz, IT'S AWESOME. Buy one and don't look back, you'll be happy you did.