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Adorama just sent this to people who had preordered the Panasonic GF1 with 20mm f/1.7 Lens
We have been informed by Panasonic that at this time they do not plan to offer this combination of the GF1 camera with the 20 1.7 Lens. (The camera with the 14-45 lens is in stock. We are waiting for deliveries of the 20 1.7 lens to start) Therefore, we regret to inform you that we are canceling your order. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you, and continue to appreciate your business.
What happened here? Is this another case of Panasonic's supply troubles, or have they decided to cash in on the 20/1.7s good reviews by only selling it separately? I don't really blame Adorama here, since they had no idea this would happen when the orders were made.
Hopefully all this hullabaloo over compact cameras with a big sensors and decent interchangeable lenses (or excellent fixed lenses a la X1, DP1, DP2) will inspire other companies (Canon, Nikon, Pentax) to jump into this arena. There have been unsubstantiated rumors of a Nikon similar to the Leica X1
There's been a lot of exciting news in the non-SLR digicam world lately. Today, Panasonic officially announced the previously leaked and much anticipated GF-1. This is supposed to give us the autofocus performance of the G1/GH1 with the tiny size of the Olympus E-P1. Unlike the E-P1 also offers a flash, an electronic eye-level viewfinder (more on that later), and a black finish (in addition to red, silver, and white).
It seems that Panasonic is putting a lot of energy into their m43 offerings... here's a list of the Panasonic-made components of their new system:
(~$650) ($900)
($900)
($1100)
($300)
($400)
($900)It seems that Panasonic has ceased development of new 4/3 (non-micro) cameras and lenses and put all their beyond-P&S energies into m43, so I'm excluding the existing 4/3 lenses (which don't AF as well when adapted anyway). The above list also doesn't include any of the Olympus m43 products. It's clear that Panny intend to make their system 'self-sufficient'. With all these nice prime lenses being announced, adapting M-mount rangefinder lenses to m43 cameras seems to be less and less relevant.
Sure, some of the lenses will be very expensive ($900 for the Leica 45/2.8 macro... ouch), but the prices don't seem as bad if you think of this as your primary camera system. A lot of enthusiasts (like myself) have mentally relegated m43 to 2nd-tier status behind DSLR systems. Sure, the m43 system has a long way to go before it will give us the flexibility of Canon or Nikon's vast array of lenses, flashes, and other accessories, but how many users out there actually use anything more than a handful of lenses (or just the kit lens + popup flash)? I love my Canon speedlights, but 90% of my DSLR shooting is done without them (and with 3-4 of my lenses).
A GF1 (or heck, even a G1) with a 3-lens 14/2.8, 20/1.7, and 45/2.8 kit (EFoV of 28/40/90) would be very sweet. Of course just a 2-lens 20/45 GF1 kit will set you back $2000 if you want to shoot at eye-level ($200 for the EVF). The non-Leica-branded 14/2.8 will likely be considerably less than $900, but the kit still pushes my price barrier for such a camera. This would all still cost less than a single 5D Mark II with no lens, but it's apples and oranges. It would be hard for me and many existing DSLR shooters to give up the high-ISO performance, great optical viewfinders, and extremely snappy performance that come along with those higher-end DSLR systems.
But as I've said before, m43 isn't necessarily for us enthusiasts (at least not exclusively). Panasonic themselves say they want to appeal to 20-30yr old 'active women' with the GF1. That explains the name ("Hey, maybe I should get my GF one.") The big questions that remain are:
I recently borrowed a friend's Panasonic G1 and did a little comparison with the Olympus E-P1. Here's a video (taken with the SD880) of the test. Kit lenses were used on both cameras.
As you can see, the G1 focuses quicker and quieter than the Olympus. When switching lenses around (not shown in the video), the G1's 14-45 seems to focus a bit faster on the E-P1 than does the Oly's own collapsible 14-42. Likewise, the Oly lens on the Panny body also focuses faster, but not as fast as the Panny lens on the Panny body. Most of the speed of the G1's focusing does come from the body.
Ever heard the old saying, "the best camera is the one you carry with you"? Recently, I went on a trip to Australia with two great Canons: the much-discussed EOS 5D Mark II 
Aperture and shutter priority modes are somewhat useless in cameras with sensors this small. Av mode is typically used to control depth-of-field, but you get almost limitless DoF at all but the closest focusing distances. The lenses on cameras this small don't even have true bladed adjustable apertures like those we see in larger format lenses. As for shutter speed control, the camera does have an "action" mode if you want to keep shutter speeds up, and it only uses smaller apertures if the shutter speed at the larger aperture will already be extremely fast. You can also manually set the ISO higher if you think the camera is giving you too-slow shutter speeds to capture action. There is, of course, easy to access exposure compensation, which is enough for the majority of photographic tasks.
The main feature that sets the SD880 apart from its siblings is the 28mm equivalent field-of-view on the wide end of its zoom range. Most SD-series Canons only go as wide as ~35mm.
Here are some examples of what the SD880 can do with a little help from Lightroom:
(click the photo to see the full-sized version)
Let's compare this last photo to a similar shot taken with the 5DmkII:
Here's a side-by-side (click for 100% crops):
Forget for a moment that the SD880 shot is tilted, a crop, and not particularly well composed. I've increased the contrast and saturation of the 5D Mark II shot a bit to bring it closer to the SD880 one. There are still significant differences in post-processing. At 100% view, the difference isn't too huge. Sure the SLR technically has massive image quality advantages, but the SD880s size and cost are both about 1/14th those of the 5DmkII + 35L.
Unfortunately, the SD880 seems to be discontinued and the only people left selling it are asking very high prices. This brings me to two 720p HD-shooting alternatives, the slim SD780 
Brad Herman has posted his First Impressions on the E-P1 over at RangeFinderForum. Brad's a current Leica M8.2
The big response to the E-P1
It seems like Olympus wants to develop higher-end m43 bodies as well as more affordable ones. That should go a long way towards appeasing non-photographers who think the E-P1 is too expensive or photographers who think it isn't serious enough (mainly due to the lack of an eye-level viewfinder). On one side, I'm seeing plenty of people walking around with superzooms or other non-pocketable non-interchangeable-lens cameras, so it seems like there are plenty of users willing to give up the pocketability of ultra-compacts. On the other side, many "enthusiasts" (including myself) are picking up the E-P1 as a supplement to their larger "main" systems. They're not willing to give up the depth-of-field control, high-ISO performance, accessories, and overall image quality of their current systems. However, if Oly and Panny play their cards right, m43 could become more than a second system for the hardcore gearheads.
The E-P1's AF at work (click for video).
I found this video review in an RFF E-P1 thread.
Skip to about 2:14 to see the auto-focus system at work. It seems to be faster than the DP2, but quite a bit slower than the G1.
The rest of the camera seems pretty responsive, and write times (at around 4:35) are quick (though we don't know if the reviewer is writing JPEG, RAW, or RAW+JPEG). From what is shown in the video, the controls seem pretty well done. I hope there will be an option to disable the sensor cleaning (for faster start-up times). If it's anything like Canon's sensor cleaning (SSWF is actually supposed to be better), it won't take any longer than it does to aim point the camera at your subject, and it won't clean when waking from sleep mode.
By the way, the video is from this page on DigitalCameraReview.com.
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($1500)