I take issue with the assumption that "beginners (won't) appreciate the difference between the Leica lens and one costing hundreds of pounds less" . Almost every person I know who bought an entry-level DSLR, thinking it would magically make their pictures wonderful because it has gobs of megapixels, is always disapointed. This is never due to the body itself, but what is infront of and behind it (ie crumby kit lens and untrained user.) I give them a couple of lessons and loan them a decent prime lens and the story changes drastically. Why DSLRs don't come with a good prime (50mm f/1.8 or 35mm f/2.0) instead of a crappy zoom is beyond me.
If Panasonic wants to make just another pro-sumer DSLR they picked the wrong lens partner. Leica lenses are among the best 35mm format lenses in the world and they aren't cheap. Electronics ARE cheap and have a short life until obsolesence. Not the case with optics. So a kit with a lens worth twice as much the body isn't completely unreasonable. In 5 years you will want to upgrade the body, but you'll keep the lenses!
By the way 10MP in a 4/3 sensor is a good number. Don't fall into the MP trap. More doesn't mean better. The more pixels you cram into a small area, the smaller (and less sensitive) they get. Eventually you have so little active area that you can't take a decent shot without heaps of light.
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I take issue with the assumption that "beginners (won't) appreciate the difference between the Leica lens and one costing hundreds of pounds less" . Almost every person I know who bought an entry-level DSLR, thinking it would magically make their pictures wonderful because it has gobs of megapixels, is always disapointed. This is never due to the body itself, but what is infront of and behind it (ie crumby kit lens and untrained user.) I give them a couple of lessons and loan them a decent prime lens and the story changes drastically. Why DSLRs don't come with a good prime (50mm f/1.8 or 35mm f/2.0) instead of a crappy zoom is beyond me.
If Panasonic wants to make just another pro-sumer DSLR they picked the wrong lens partner. Leica lenses are among the best 35mm format lenses in the world and they aren't cheap. Electronics ARE cheap and have a short life until obsolesence. Not the case with optics. So a kit with a lens worth twice as much the body isn't completely unreasonable. In 5 years you will want to upgrade the body, but you'll keep the lenses!
By the way 10MP in a 4/3 sensor is a good number. Don't fall into the MP trap. More doesn't mean better. The more pixels you cram into a small area, the smaller (and less sensitive) they get. Eventually you have so little active area that you can't take a decent shot without heaps of light.
BTW, there is another review of this kit @ dpreview
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonicdmcl10
cheers