Hi Damian, While I can't give you a first hand view of the FZ150 (its on order), I have the FZ100 and while its a very good camera, the reasons I decided to upgrade to the FZ150 were as follows. First of all, it has the new "light speed" autofocus, which is also used on the g3 and is claimed to be as fast, if not faster than the autofocus speeds on DSLR cameras. Secondly, it has a second zoom/focus control, which makes it more versatile. This will be very useful if you are trying to shoot a bird flying towards you and you need to zoom out and refocus at the same time. The new manual focus arrangement is a huge improvement on the current manual focus arrangement on the FZ100. So those two features alone make it a better camera than the already good FZ100. On top of that, it has better image quality and slightly faster burst shooting modes. The FZ100/150 have the fastest burst shooting in the super zoom area and are faster than just about all the DSLRs as well. I shoot a lot of birds and use the 40fps burst mode frequently. None of the other cameras offer that feature. If you use the 5.5fps burst mode it will auto focus between shots, none of the other superzooms offer that feature either. I think that for bird photography, this is one of the best. The only other camera I would consider (personal choice here) is the Panasonic G3, which also has the light speed auto focus, but slower burst rates, although it does have a 20 fps burst mode. It will also give better images, especially in low light, but if you add the 100-300 lens (which you would need) then it is also a lot more expensive. I think that starting off with the FZ150 is a good idea, as its easy to carry around and very versatile. You can always upgrade to a bigger camera later, in the mean time you will be able to get some excellent pics, especially in good light.
