Leica announces $749 V-LUX 30 compact camera

You know the drill: Panasonic introduces a perfectly capable camera, and a few months later Leica tweaks a few angles, paints it black, and slaps its iconic logo on its own version of it -- admittedly, changes that make all the difference in terms of design. In this case it's the Panasonic ZS10 that's gotten revamped as Lecia's new V-LUX 30, a followup to its V-LUX 20 compact. At $749, this one's actually one of Leica's more affordable offerings, but that will still only buy you the exact same guts as its $400 (or less) Panasonic counterpart: a 15.1 megapixel sensor, 16x optical zoom, 1080i video recording, a 3-inch LCD 'round back, and built-in GPS for geotagging. Head on past the break fro the complete press release, and look for the camera to be available in June.