I am definately interested in more about these two cameras, and if you know anything about the Kodak dx6490 too. I am looking for a high resolution camera with at least the 10x optical for my travels to various countries. I am a bit worried about the slow response time of the olympus, whereas I hope to be in Africa this fall, and don't want to miss a snap-second shot. Altough, I currently have an olympus which I love and it did very well on the trips. Any more information you have would be very helpful!
Thanks!
I debated between buying the panasonic or the Olympus, and I ended up buying the olympus. Here are my reasons. The olympus is small enough to carry around while the panasonic is kind of big, not a camera to carry to functions without appearing like the press is here.
The Panasonic uses a proprietary battery, that can be a killer if you are far away from home and you run out of juice... worse still, it takes time to charge the battery, and an extra one costed $55 in January when I first tried it out. The olympus uses regular 4 AAs, and I bought an energizer 30 minute charger for $25, I can also buy additional batteries if I am stuck in the bush.
The olympus allows saving in TIFF uncompressed, z10 is stuck on JPEG, even though it's compact, I bought a lens adapter ($14 at bh.com) and I have a 55mm mount for filters, more tele or fisheye lenses, and filters for my hobbying shots. The zoom can be sluggish, but it is not a deal breaker... I can go on and on, but I consider both to be great cameras, only that the Olympus has more flexibilities and I fell for it... Ofcourse the panasonic has advantages such as it's 2.8 f stop zoom all the way, Let me know if you want me to tell you more... if I have not already written too much ![]()

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic