Perhaps I am posting too soon, as I have not gotten to do a full-blown test, but I doubt I will be using my Nikon D80 very much anymore after getting the Lumix GX1. I love this camera! Because many of you ask about cameras here, I thought I would share this review. Note: This is NOT a waterproof camera, but it is the perfect camera if you want high-quality pictures ashore but don't want to lug a DSLR along.

I cut my teeth on Leica M3 and IIIf rangefinders that I inherited from my great uncle when I was only 10 years old (Yes, they were old cameras even then!). I graduated to the Leica R4 and Nikon F3 with motor drives and all the trimmings when I went to a short stint in press photography and weddings. I then a Mamiya RB67 and even played with 8x10 view cameras in a search for the perfect image. I even built a darkroom- remember those?

Along came digital, and I was skeptical of anything that had square pixels, but I eventually got a Sony point-and-shoot just to play with and was impressed enough that I made the switch to DSLR's. It was a costly move. My film cameras that new were worth tens of thousands were now worthless on trade-in, so I kept them for nostalgic reasons and dropped a load of cash on Nikon DSLR equipment. At the time the 10.2 megapixels were something to be proud of! Now remember, I was all about image quality, even going to 8x10's in search of finer grain and more detail, so going digital for me was a big step. Of course that was a long time ago and now I am enjoying the ease and convenience of digital, although I do miss those long hours in the darkroom playing with smelly chemicals.

Well, fast-forward, and just as film became a thing of the past, I firmly believe the mirrored DSLR will become old technology. The new mirrorless cameras use the same sensor technology as the DSLR, but they lack the mirror and viewfinder. They have a slightly smaller sensor, but I believe it is only a matter of time that a full-frame sensor will come out in the mirrorless format. For now, however, the big thing is the Micro 4/3 mirrorless cameras. The sensor is a little smaller than a DSLR, but with 16.2 megapixels and very high quality lenses available, these are still very much quality imaging cameras. I finally broke down and got the Lumix GX1, and am absolutely in love with it.

It's like I am shooting my old Leica M3 again, except the viewfinder is replaced by an active LCD touchscreen. If you don't want to use the touchscreen, there are buttons for all the functions as well. It feels very old-school, but yet it is light and compact. I would say slightly smaller than an M3, and much lighter. The big advantage of the mirrorless cameras is that since there is no mirror between the lens and sensor, you can get a very fast 20 frames per second at lower quality settings, and still get high 10 FPS at fine settings. Also you get a much lighter and more compact frame.

The biggest advantage when compared to point-and-shoot cameras is the interchangeable lense system. You get the compactness of a small camera, and the versatility of a DSLR. I highly recommend just buying the body of the Lumix and then instead of the 14-42 kit lens, get the 14-45 lens that came with the older GF1. That lens has much better image quality, and I will be trading my 14-42 for that lens. I also got the 45-200 which has yet to arrive, so no feedback on it yet. But the real kicker- the over-the-top wow for this camera (for me at least) is that you can get Leica lenses for it. Of course they are not cheap, but if you know cameras, then you know Leica is the best, and their optics are unmatched. I have done side-by-side tests of the Leica R series lenses to the Nikon A1 and the color and sharpness difference was immediately obvious with the Leica.

In addition to purpose-made Leica lenses for this camera, you can also adapt the Leica M and R series lenses, as well as Nikon, Canon, and Minolta lenses from the film days. They will be manual mode only, but if you have any old film camera lenses now you can use them with a digital camera. Also if you want a unique lens like a fisheye or a long telephoto, you can get a great deal on an older film camera lens that is still excellent quality, and just get an adapter to use it with this camera. That's what I intend to do for a fisheye lens, because I don't use a fisheye much and so I don't want to pay $800 for one, but I can get a good used Nikon A1 film camera lens for much less. I have to manually focus and set the aperture, but that's part of the fun for me!

So anyway, without getting too technical, if you want a non-waterproof camera that is versatile, lightweight, and compact, yet takes excellent quality pics, then RUN to the store and get a Lumix DX1. A lot of professionals are getting these as backup cameras, which is what I bought it for, but now that I have gotten my hands on it I think it's going to get way more use than the Nikon. There are already underwater housings coming out (although quite expensive) and I am sure in no time there will be cheaper waterproof covers for them for when you want to carry it on the kayak. After having destroyed countless waterproof cameras, from now on I am going with land cameras and waterproof housings. Oh, and it does do HD videos as well, and even has a built-in stereo mic. Also a great feautre is a horizon line that stays level as you tilt the camera. Sadly, one of my biggest issues is I never can seem to get the horizon perfectly straight in a picture, so I love this feature. You can turn it on and off if you don't like it. Also you can shoot at ISO of up to 12,600. That's insane, and I doubt I would ever go past 6400, but it's great to know I have that option for low-light. There are some great low-light lenses available as well, such as the 20mm f:1.7 which will be my next purchase. There's also a cheaper 14mm f:2.5 that should be a great low-light lens, especially with the image stabilizing that the Lumix lenses have built in. That gives you the ability to shoot at one notch slower shutter speed without the shake that you would normally get. (Maybe even two notches- I have not yet gotten to fully thest the image stabilizing.)

Another thing to note- with the Micro 4/3 format, you basically get half the frame size of a 35mm format, so you double the effective zoom of any lens. For example, a 50mm in the M4/3 format would give the same apparent image size as a 100mm in 35mm format. So this 14-42mm is like a 28-84 , and the 45-200 is effectively a 90-400. Should be great for telephoto shots. Of course using a 175mm on a Nikon D90 or a 200mm on a full-frame and just enlarging it 2x would give you the same effective zoom and probably better overall quality, but still I like the idea of being able to shoot with a small lens and zoom in as if it were a larger lens. with a 16.2mp processor you are still going to get a high resolution image that you can enlarge without pixilation. They have a 100-300 zoom that would be an insane wildlife lens, equivalent to a 200-600 in 35mm format, yet with a f:4-5.6 aperture which isn't too shabby for that long of a lens. With image stabilizing, a higher ISO setting, and a fast shutter speed you could hand-hold at 300 but I would think a tripod would be a better option.

This camera is making shooting fun again. No more clunkity heavy DSLR boat anchor around my neck. This thing is fun, shoots great pics, and is easy to throw in a ditty bag, dry bag, etc. My new favorite go-to camera.