I have had the
Panasonic Lumix GF1
since it came out four years ago. No zoom, just the two pancake lenses 14mm and 20mm.
At first I thought shooting without zoom would be hard but I have adapted my shooting (you can buy several zooms but they greatly increase the footprint of the camera, it will no longer fit a pocket or small carrying cases). Still there are cases when I wish I had zoom. The other drawbacks are a lack of viewfinder (the electronic one is expensive and not very good) and a rather slow autofocus (a drawback for action shots, especially when the subject comes close).
The camera excels in image quality and operations and overall I am quite happy with it. But I am looking for a camera that would be easier to use in bright light (optical viewfinder) and for action (I have too many blurred or out of focus skier pictures from the GF1). Several cameras mentioned in this thread look promising, I will take a closer look at them soon.
While checking out the latest on dpreview I found the following article.
What to consider when buying a new camera for street photography
is an interesting read (street photography can be pretty close to the process of documenting one's outdoor adventures). Instead of focusing on technical specifications, the author talks about how people approach buying stuff and how their approach relates to their satisfaction with the product afterwards. It is quite interesting.
