The Pana­sonic G1 — Is this the begin­ning of a new direc­tion in com­pact cameras?

Back when I was rab­bit­ing on about what cam­era to buy, I men­tioned that “The best cam­era is the one you have with you…” and that “any com­pact dig­i­tal cam­era with more mega pix­els than [8] is nearly always going to result in a poorer qual­ity pic­ture”. These two assump­tions were key to my choices for a pow­er­ful carry around cam­era, which is cur­rently a Canon G7. Today’s announce­ment of the Pana­sonic G1, the first cam­era based on the Micro Four Thirds stan­dard may be about to fun­da­men­tally alter these assump­tions..
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