Though first to the micro Four Thirds scene, Panasonic let Olympus beat it to the punch with the extremely compact design of the E-P1. The GF1 is equally compact, with a more subdued black finish, but it brings with it the remarkable image quality and contrast-based AF speed we enjoyed in its older Lumix siblings, the G1 and GH1—as well as 720p video at up to 60 fps.

Enter the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1: it's roughly the same size as the E-P1 and has better AF performance, a built-in flash, a higher resolution LCD, and a nicer movie mode. Add in full manual controls, a second-to-none live view experience, great photo quality, and lots of bells and whistles and well, I was smitten. Not only do I highly recommend the DMC-GF1 -- I can tell you that I bought one to take on my trip.