Boy, I've never seen so much vitriol aimed at a non-existent inanimate object! Its way nastier over at DPreview but a lot of bad vibes here too. I really don't get what the fuss is about. The size, with a pancake lens, isn't a huge difference, but it really isn't a BAD thing. There's a lot of love here for the LX-5 and its, uhhh, smaller. And the only function I've seen that you now MUST use the touch screen for that you had a knob for before is the mode selector - they removed the mode dial and put it in software. I have a LOT of trouble getting worked up about this. I don't personally change the mode all that much - usually in Ap priority with occasional forays into shutter priority or full manual. The GF2 seems to have a big letter indicating the mode in the upper left corner of the screen and if you wanna change it, you touch it, all of the other modes become visible, and you touch the one you want. This just doesn't sound difficult or burdensome to me. The camera still has the little dial up by the thumb position to actually change the parameter such as aperture, shutter speed, exposure, etc, that the gf1 and lx5 have. So the problem here is what? It also does have an AFL/AEL button, its just not marked that way and it could be programmed to do other things. I just can't think of anything that I do that I couldn't do as well with this camera. I understand there are limits in terms of the flash and in terms of a remote release and these are real enough limitations for some folks. But that's not what I'm seeing complaints about. They all seem to be about the mode dial!
I think John Stewart's advice to "take it down a notch" is in order here. M43 lovers on the web seem to be more pissed about this camera than I am about the elections the other day, and I'm PISSED about the elections!
Just another point of view. I'm not gonna buy this camera but if I was looking at the GF1 or the GF2, I'd probably go for it if the sensor and AF speed are better...
-Ray