Ah... exactly as I predicted since the advertisement is already on the newspaper so it must be near. Good luck Hico...

Actually EP-1/2 is not better than GF-1 and vice versa. It is just how the camera designers intend to expose a picture. They may have various reasons or intentions of doing so. You can see its clearly that they both use different image processors to begin with. Its just more of a preference or taste. I remember in the past where Canon launches the 400D DSLR camera. It underexposes a lot too but people fail to understand why this is the case and blamed it on the camera.

As usual, I will not say whether the EP-1/2 or the GF-1 is better. Since both uses the same library of lenses, it doesn't matter. I'm more interested to explore the noise reduction/filtering strategies from both manufacturers. I hope Wrotniak has written an article about it. Let me check if there's any.

I had the Evolt E-30 (probably irrelevant to speak here) and the noise performance is... well I would say.... tricky...

Actually we can overcome the supposedly 'underexposure' of Panasonic cameras. It require some experience in identifying the scene that we're capturing. For example, Panasonic camera usually underexpose by increasing the shutter speed whenever it senses a large body of white colored surface. And also brighter colored backgrounds. So under these situations, you can always increase the exposure compensation by +1/3 to +2/3.

Also Panasonic uses the shading compensation (I forgot the name) to increase dynamic range for both highlights and shadows. As a result, exposure is averaged and if there are white background it will underexpose to prevent overexposure of white. You can try turning it off to see if it helps. For Panasonic users, I think it is beneficial to use RAW because it reveals more potential. With RAW it doesn't matter if you underexposure or overexpose because you still have headroom to recover these areas.

For Olympus, users may not see a need to use RAW because the JPEG engine is so good that using RAW will not present more headroom for PP. So yes, Panasonic users can workaround by tweaking the Film Modes to mimic the 'Olympus Color'. One forumer shared with before that there's profile to do that. However, keep in mind that color tweaking on body can only do so much. It may not work for certain situations. For example if you tweak the color to be more warm, if you are taking a portrait... the human skin may become ridiculously reddish. If you use RAW or use a natural color profile... you can still use PP to tweak to your hearts content.

Its very obvious hehehehehe... Actually EP-1 has a very good advantage. It is using the latest TruePic V. GF-1's photos are soft because it is using a stronger noise filtering.

I think the EP-1 is even better than my E-30 in terms of noise management.

That depends on a lot of things. First in order to achieve a noise-free image or a low noise image, we need to perform noise filtering and AA. We know for a fact that image sensors (especially 4/3 ones at this development stage) is noisy depending on its design. The problem is noise filtering reduces detail. So the strategy is to either implement a strong filter at the expense of reduced detail and softness or a weak filter for preserving more detail and sharpness.

I prefer to see more detail and have higher quality at the expense of some noise. Why? Because you can't see it on a normal picture or when you print it out even at large sizes. You will only see it when you view it 1:1 or pixel peep which is pointless in my opinion.

I have heard of people disabling the noise filtering totally in order to enjoy more details. Your suggestion is quite accurate in the sense that using a weaker noise filtering setting reduces the blurring as a result of filtering itself (but at the expense of more noise). However, Wrotniak's articles have mentioned that you cannot totally switch off noise filtering although you choose the OFF setting. Some degree of filtering is performed. Unless you shoot RAW to avoid noise filtering and gradation settings. Don't use Olympus Master to develop the RAW but use ACR to do it. Then use your favorite noise filtering software like Imagenomic or Noise Ninja to do the job. You'll get better results. Of course... that depends on the level of commitment you're willing to give just to have good photos.

Also we know for a fact that the Gradation settings for JPEG causes more noise even on low ISO. Select Normal Gradation instead of Auto because Auto will bring out more shadow noise. And you cannot totally disable it because you can't.

I would recommend the Olympus FL36R because it fits right into your requirements. The rest does offer tilt and swivel but are not TTL-capable. The Panny is usually a little expensive for the kind of performance it provides. Metz does have a 36-version with TTL but don't offer LCD display so you need to do settings on the camera which is troublesome while its higher end model is too big size.

Olympus camera's straight out JPEGs have always been colorful and punchy. Thats what a lot of people have been saying about. Everything looks tweaked and doesn't need much post production.

It shouldn't distract your photo taking process too much unless you're working with a dynamic subject or at a rapidly changing environment like an event. Otherwise, things should be well under control. The EP-1 does have one problem initially and that is the C-AF. However, recent updates have improved it significantly so it is not an issue anymore.

Yeah that's because the EP-1 prefers to focus out and then focus back in. Sounds to me it cannot AF in small increments or a weakness in the contrast based AF algorithm. If you look at Imager AF on it's DSLR with CDAF lens, the same thing happens.

GF-1 I heard it performs continuous AF as you move around so by the time you focus, it's already pretty near. But still it's contrast AF is the most responsive I have ever seen.

I think this is expected and very typical. Nowadays, it is almost a reality that manufacturers rate their ISOs differently from the other. Remember we can get the equivalent of ISO100 from ISO200 but reducing its exposure? I can say there's more to that. Almost all Canon cameras have lower intended ISO values for every ISO stop.

Maybe it is a good strategy for image quality preservation but with some small loss of shutter speed.

Hellfire, I really like your 70-300 so so much... you make me hate myself.

Aiya.. built-in flash you like meh? Maybe for emergency situations lar... but flash gun is more versatile.

But I wonder if this new model has wireless TTL capability. Cause for Olympus, you need a built-in as primary flash.

This is really going to be interesting :-)

Yeah hehehe... should get stuff like B+W and Hoya Pro-1.

Which one you're eyeing? Asus UL80Vt? This one seems to be a good bang for buck. Acer also have one model at RM2699. Complete specs including Core i5.