Depends on what you want to do. Daylight photography, fine, no problem.
At night, however, you're much much better off with an SLR.

It goes up to "420mm (35mm equivalent)", which means that the field of
view is equivalent to a 420mm lens on a 35mm film camera. The actual
max focal length is, I think, 72mm. The larger equivalent length is
because the imaging sensor is considerably smaller than a 35mm frame.

When you turn the camera on, the lens doesn't extend out of the camera
Internal zoom means that when you change zooms, the length of the lens
stays fixed.

There's a ring encircling the lens. It's connected via cams to the lens
elements; turning the ring directly moves lens elements to change the
zoom, without using any motors.

A second ring encircling the lens. This one is connected to sensors,
which are then connected to motors that move the focusing elements.

To first approximation, it's a marketing gimmick.

Can't comment on this; I've never used it. Personally, I'd buy a
wide-angle converter before a teleconverter; these cameras have plenty
of tele reach, but don't go very wide.

-dms

I had the camera for three months. Rather than pitching it off a ledge, I
sold it and bought a Panasonic FZ20.  I'm a far happier person for having
done so.  This camera is not for the faint of heart and not for a novice
digital camera user.  I'm not saying you are, but fair warning to others.
It's "auto" mode is worthless.  Photos are soft and it's often unclear what
the camera is metering on. This camera seems to require good outdoor
lighting to perform well in any mode.  Know I'll be shot at sunrise by the
die-hard fans, but I would run, not walk away from this one. The Panasonic
FZ10 and 20 are excellent with sharp lenses.  In spite of all the "features"
of the FZ30, I consider it a huge disappoinment from Panasonic.

 You heard wrong, probably due to too much noise.

 No, O'Reilly.  But that was yesterday.  Today it goes up to 42cm.

 You can zoom without knocking off the lens cap.

 Doesn't use buttons, levers or voice control.

 Doesn't use a mechanically linked ring.

 Probably not, but what the hell do I know?

 It isn't worth the cost.  But if you stack two of them, the second
one adds another 500mm.  Then it becomes really cost effective.

 He also once said that if you have an expensive Maserati and you
want a longer lens, buy a longer lens.  A truism, truly.

I've had only a couple of occasions when noise reared it's ugly head,
both when I was messing about trying to provoke it. Otherwise it doesn't
worry me any more than grain might have back in 35mm film days.

The zoom range on this lens is amazing. If you take a shot at maximum
zoom (88mm*), then go to maximum wide angle (7.5mm*), you're struggling
to find the first shot within the second.

(* these two figures are guestimates from images in iPhoto. I don't have
the camera with me to check.)

Answered in earlier postings

It's a round-about way of describing Digital zoom.

?????

It crops a portion of the centre of the sensor, to produce an smaller FOV.
You could do the same by cropping in post-processing.

I wouldn't buy one if I was you, it leaves the rest of us able to take
fantastic photos.

In most cases, no, the noise isn't an issue, at least int eh particular
specimen of FZ-30 I'm using.  In low light noise is present, but working
with the RAW can take care of that.

All answered by other posters.

Basically, nothing you should mess with.  It's digital zoom.

Depends on how badly you think you would need it.  I personally don't
see a need to buy it at that price, for my use so far.

---------------------

I'm not exactly sure where you are going with this question but the earlier
FZ20 certainly does a nice job of making images from some rather expensive
DSLRs look decidely poor quality in low light.
http://www.weprint2canvas.com/gallery/tangalooma/money_making Hand held at
1/6th of a second. Try doing that with *ANY* SLR, much less a DSLR. The lens
extention was very close to the 12x maximum although there is no information
available at the time of shooting as to the Zoom amount. I can attest to the
quality of the Leica optics too.
--- EXIF Data ---
Make = Panasonic
Model = DMC-FZ20
Orientation = Normal
XResolution = 72.00
YResolution = 72.00
Resolution Unit = Inch
Software = Ver1.0
Date Time = 2006:03:16 19:38:07
YCb Cr Positioning = Co-sited
Exif Offset = 418
Exposure Time = 10/60 sec
FNumber = F2.8
Exposure Program = Normal
ISOSpeed Ratings = 200
Exif Version = "0220"-- www.photosbydouglas.comwww.weprint2canvas.comIf you
really must write,use myname at an above domain.