Super successor for Camedia series

At last the old Bridge cameras Camedia series have received a worthy successor.
After I with the C 5060 and C 5050 photographed a few years, I got myself in early 2011 the XZ-1. After nearly a year in use I can say that I am absolutely thrilled.

Here in detail my reviews:

Photo quality:
Supremely well. I photograph as a rule in JPG format) RAW is also possible). The pictures are absolutely great.
Very natural color reproduction. Focus and exposure without any problem whatsoever in all manuelen and automatic operating modes.
The image stabilizer allows handheld shots from 1/10 sec!

The built-in effect filters are a nice gimmick, but not so important for me.
The integrated panorama function works very appealing. In the mountains I have been accepted very well-balanced and well-exposed 180 ° panoramas. They are, as the camera assembles the images, very presentable. And save a lot of time that I would otherwise have to put in the post.

Close:
The macro capability is very good and detailed. The autofocus works reliably from 1 cm.
Manual focusing is also possible (even within the normal range).

Interior:
With the relatively strong built-in flash are not a problem.
The flash is only required when it is really dark.
I can, for example, in churches make diverse recordings without additional flash and am amazed how good the photos are managed. The fast lens makes here a positive impact.

Video:
Videos are, as often described, OK. The autofocus performs with moving objects to the sharpness. This leads to the "pumping" of the Focus. In practice, this means that the focus is not adjusted optimally for a few fractions of a second. Videos a football match under floodlights (no contrast, and many differently moving objects) are acceptable, but just do not have high-end quality.
Videos of animals in the zoo in daylight are me hervorrragend succeeded. So the reviews are reviewing the video capability of the camera Packages bad incomprehensible for me.
However, the camera produces large amounts of data (one minute video recording requires approximately 130MB memory).

Haptics / Steering:
The camera has a very appealing package. The size of the camera is great and also the feel is very good. Better than I thought. Have a grip of Franiec complements the improved grip. Since I the camera with one hand while climbing operator is very helpful. (Normally, the camera without this auxiliary handle is already very well equipped.)
The Olympus menu was not new to me, so I rated it neutral. Who needed a camera with manual controls must always be incorporated into specific details.

Conclusion:

5 ***** stars because the price-performance ratio is right!
I can well understand the hype around this camera.

Unrestricted buy recommendation!