I don't know, i've heard a lot of mixed reviews on the 8mp panasonics right now. In the FZ 30 there is a problem with them overloading the sensor producing lots of noise on anything shot over ISO 100. Weather or not they fixed it on the LX1, i'm not sure. But i'd just wait to hear about it a little more. I have played with the FZ 30 and was very very disappointed with the quality on the higher ISO's.
Lx1 is an excelent camera. It almost equals in quality (lenswise) to my LC1 (the Leica Digilux 2 clone), and has the extra of having a bigger telephoto and 16:9 photo. The 8mp is great, compared to my 5mp lc1. I tried one at a shop, and will definetly get this has my pocket camera option. The noise level is equal to my LC1. Pictures might look noisy on computers, but excelent when printed out. This camera can be used for professional artistic work, in my opinion. (I used the LC1 for a photo exhibition I did with excelent results. Excelent texture and color reproduction!