best lens in a point and shoot???

i doubt if lens is the most important factor. the senor size, price etc are also important.
those cameras' lens don't stick out are definitely not the best lens as far as what i remember. ps cameras are aimed for mostly general market and most people just don't know or care about lens.

In film cameras, the lens is the determining factor for resolution. It's not for the type of camera you are talking about.

For any camera, the end result is what you are after and it is the lens/sensor combination that determines that in digital cameras.

The sharpest lens with a high resolution sensor can be useless if there is too much noise and that is the problem with the compact point and shoot cameras in the higher ISO's. Quality can, and often does, fall off sharply after ISO 400 with these cameras. This becomes a real practical problem in cameras that up the ISO to get higher shutter speeds in low light conditions to reduce blur from camera motion. Image stabilization is the way to go and optical is the best available.

Here is another consideration that goes to the sensor/lens decision. Comparing the Panasonic against the Canon equivalent, assuming that the lenses are equivalent, the Canon produces better detailed images at higher ISOs. The reason is that the Panasonic uses a much more aggresive and different approach to noise reduction and smooths and smears the colors. The result is, that though the Canon has more visible noise in the image, it looks better because the noise is more tolerable than the smearing when enlarging beyond 4x6 in many cases.

For digital compact cameras, you have to go to the overall quality of the sensor, lens and built in image processing of the camera to make a choice.

Some models of the Panasonic are very good cameras and I have no trouble recommending them depending on what the use of the camera is going to be and the desired end results. If you are interested in printing larger images or putting full resolution images up on the web that come from a crop, A Canon will produce images that are capable of higher end quality with appropriate simple post processing.

Are Leica C-Lux 2 the top of the line in compact digitals? Not necessarily. It depends on the criteria involved. For example, you want a camera for travel. Two cameras are generally equivalent, but one has a zoom from 35 mm to 300 mm (equivalent) and the other goes from 28 mm to 105 mm. Which should you choose?

An experienced photographer will probably choose the 28 - 105 mm camera because it will cover 99% of the shots that get taken under travel photography conditions. The shots that the 28 mm makes easier, or even possible to get outweighs the greater reach of the longer zoom.

On the other hand, a backpacker would probably opt for the longer zoom range to capture things like potential wild life images.

I'm a photojournalist, so my choice because of the low light performance and the lens coverage, is the Canon SD 800. I carry it anytime I don't carry my DSLR. I could have picked the Leica or the Panasonic, both excellent, but neither camera measures up under the circumstances I often shoot under.

Define what you will be doing with the camera, then shop.

To answer your question, though, the Leica lenses are very, very good. So are the Canon lenses. In practical terms, if your not shooting test images, but taking real pictures, they are equivalent.

Vance

If you want a good digicam, there are 4 main factors :-
Resolution (MP)
Zoom
Image Stabalization
High Sensitivity ‘

Resolution ( MP):
5MP is enough for most snappers. 6-8MP cameras have now become the norm and very useful while 10MP is the standard for aspirational photographers, I advice you to go for 6 or 7 MP.

Zoom :
3x should be quite enough but try to go for higher OPTICAL zoom. Do not get confused with optical and digital zoom.

Image Stabalization :
Its very important in digital cameras as its not like dSLRs or SLRs.

High Sensitivity :
This is where your question comes in. Lens are a very important factor in cameras. On the camera lens there should be some writing there. Example.

Canon Zoom Lens 4x 5.4-21.6mm 1: 2.8 – 5.8

The 5.4 – 21mm meaning zoom. The starting number (5.4mm) meaning it can take at a very wide angle and can zoom until 21mm.

The 2.8 – 5.8 meaning how big can the sensor or eye of the camera open. 2.0 is very good and so on. On digital cameras if you do use the zoom the sensor ( referred to as f.) will slowly close and if its like 3x zoom from f. 2.0 can become f.5.0. This can highly effect indoor picture taking. As the bigger the sensor opens, more light can come in to the lens.

dSLRs lenses do not change the f. when zoomed in. Another thing to concern is the shutter speed. 1/2000 is the average on any digital camera.

So find one with at least f.2.6 – how much you want.

Something sounds off about your math. 42-150mm would be a 3.6x zoom, not 24x. That said, there are superzoom point-n-shoots with 24x zoom capability. Depending on how wide the camera's lens can go, that might be the equivalent of a 28-672mm lens. No such lens exists for SLRs for a variety of reasons. The whole point of an SLR is the ability to use the best lens for a specific shot. Superzoom lenses compromise image quality in favor of convenience. There is at 28-300mm zoom available from Canon but, it is a huge lens compared to most "normal" zooms for SLRs. Don't forget that SLRs have sensors that are up to 15 times larger than those of a compact point-n-shoot. The lenses are also proportionally larger and relatively expensive, particularly for zooms. Longer focal lengths reaching 600mm like superzoom compacts, are even more expensive. In fact, nearly all SLR lenses exceeding 400mm focal length are fast supertelephoto primes that can be 18 inches long and weigh more than 10lbs. These lenses would actually be even larger and heavier if they were zooms. An extreme example is Sigma's 200-500mm F2.8 APO EX DG.which is over two feet long, weighs almost 35lbs and costs just under $29,000.

In a compact digital camera the quality of the image will be most affected by:

1. The physical size of the sensor
2. The megapixel count in relation to the above
3. The noise reduction process the camera uses

Lens quality is important in any camera but runs a distant fourth in this case.

Go over to dpreview.com and look at the reviews. You'll see many cameras with good lenses, that produce poor images.

lens quality is number one concern for me as far as cameras go

a