both the kodak and panny have pros and cons. i ended up with the panny FZ7. it suited my needs better. the kodak p850 however has OIS, and also a cool little feature were you can set your metering , lock it and then focus on your subject, in case your subject is not the correct brightness, or what not. that is not on the panasonic in such a user friendly way. the panasonic i feel is a better camera though ( for my needs). the ois is very good, the battery life is excellent, the useability of the camera is first rate. it feels solid in your hand, and it is not bulky. i havnt looked into the kodak Z612 but it looks to be a very good camera. i still like having a leica lens on the panasonic though. see if you can try them out in a camera shop and decide. they are quite similar cameras so it will be personal preference that decides this for you.

i went with the panny, you might go with the kodak. both good cameras

The P850 is the only Kodak with IS at the moment, they just announced the new 7 megapixel P712 but it isn't available yet. IS is very important when considering a super zoom camera, I wouldn't have one without it. No one wants to have to drag a tripod around unless they have to...

Owned and tried both the fz7 and s3. Kept the fz7 due to sharper pictures, lighter and smaller, bigger screen. I would recommend the fz7.

steve wrote:
The Z612 also has IS, although there aren't enough reliable reviews of it yet to test how well it works.