Well, the rumors were correct, as we suspected.
Inevitably, the GF1 will be compared with the Olympus E-P1, but as the leaked specifications did tell us, the key differences are:
Panasonic GF1:

• Faster autofocus and tracking
• Higher resolution screen
• Built in flash
• Optional electronic viewfinder
• AVCHD video

• Supports autofocus on all Four Thirds lenses
• In-Body IS
• Stereo sound in video recording

But that is not all, Panasonic has published Micro Four Thirds lens roadmap for 2009-2010, among the lenses they are planning are:
• 7-14mm F4
• 45mm F2.8 OIS Macro
• 20mm F1.7
• 14-140mm F4-5.8 OIS HD
• 100-300mm F4-5.6 OIS
• 8mm F3.5 Fisheye
• 14mm F2.8
Along with Olympus 17mm F2.8 and rumoured Olympus wide zoom, I think the Micro Four Thirds is very promising.
Some previews from the web:
DC Resource
Lets Go Digital
DP Review

In Just a little over 48 hours, everyone will be rushing to see how does the new E-series Flagship measure against the best of them out there. A frequent mistake, one no different than comparing apples to oranges.

For the drive system of the E-1's successor, we set high technological targets worthy of a flagship model and then went on to achieve them
Shigeru Iwase
Senior Supervisor, Product Development Department, R&D Division,
Olympus Imaging Corporation

Olympus has made a few pioneering advancements to its upcoming successor to the E-1, by completely redesigning the Shutter, Mirror & Viewfinder mechanisms.

Firstly, They set out to build an ultrafast shutter with low energy consumption and higher durability. They have achieved that by reducing the number of gear shifting steps; and placing the cam closer to the shutter & mirror which resulted in a reduced number of parts in transmission; setting a direct drive, means transmission loss is reduced, and accuracy is increased; the use of metallic parts improved both accuracy and durability. Furthermore, the introduction of high-strength engineering resin presents excellent wear resistance.


"We adopted a variety of ingenious new technologies and concepts to obtain the highest image quality
Shigeru Iwase

Secondly, a completely redesigned new mirror mechanism. With a clear aim to be quieter, faster, shock less, and more importantly, sounds just perfect, emphasis on sound here, literally. This gave birth to a mirror box made of carbon resin material with very high rigidity. The viewfinder magnification was increased by using a larger prism, and the AF coverage rate got improved by increasing the size of the AF sub-mirror.
Giving the mirror box unit, image sensor unit and shutter unit different paths, meant that no shock got transmitted to the shutter drive or to the image sensor.

Mark your calendars. The E-1 successor vill be revealed on 17th October.
While no details about this camera have been officially announced there have been numerous leaks point to ten megapixel sensor, liveview, in-body image stabilization (like the E-510), five frames per second and eleven area auto-focus (as well as normal pro features such as full metal body, weatherproofing, etc.)
I guess the rumours are right, specifications in October, camera available in November. (Probably on the 1st, as rumor has it)

Update:
I have been asked to remove the PDF from public sight while the leak is being investigated. Too bad that my first and only phonecall from Olympus was so negative. But we will know in a few days, at least it looks like the camera is going to hit the shelves very soon now. I'm am already putting money aside for it myself.
J.

Well, the cat is out of the bag. Somebody over at fourthirdsphoto.com has leaked a PDF from Olympus European business meeting dated 5th of June. There are some good news, the Olympus DSLR market size has grown almost 50% on every year since 2004. But the main part is regarding the E-P1 specs:

• World most effective anti-shake system (Max 5 Steps) (Did they mean Stops?)
• 10MP High Speed Live MOS (5fps)
• Live View with multi angel (sic) LCD
• Dust reduction
• Splash proof body
• Wireless flash control in 3 groups
• Quicker and more accurate World quickest with SWD lenses (I'm having trouble believing that one)
• 11 points
• All cross sensor (Ok, impressive)
• Better low light performance -2EV at ISO100
• Better continuous AF
• High speed shooting (5fps, 1/8000, X=1/250)

The long awaited Firmware v2.0 for Digilux 3 has been released by Leica and is now ready for download.
From the press release:
Quote:

Well, after playing with the E-510 for a week, I must say it is a very tempting little camera. It took a while to get the best results from it, compared to my old E-1, but the magic is in there.
The first mistake I made was to set the camera to +1 sharpening as my E-1, that made terrible photos, the camera seemed to sharpen and exaggerate JPEG artifacts. When I turned down sharpening to -2, it worked much better. And then when I turned off noise filter, the images looked even better.
The camera is definetly faster in all operations compared to the E-1. Startup, CF writing, focus and general operation are all much faster.
The body is comfortable, not nearly as good as the E-1, but even my 20D-owning friend, commented on how comfortable it was.

Yes.

It really works. I have not yet figured out how many stops it delivers, but it looks like it could be at least 2, even up to 4 stops. It is not only useful on telephoto lenses, but also indoors, and everywhere in low light. I now understand the excitement of Minolta 5D users. All my old lenses are now instantly IS, the 50-200 is really nice with IS.
10 frame sequence test without IS.
10 frame sequence test with IS.
Both are 100% crops, and were taken with 50-200 on 200mm 1/60 sec. F3.5 handheld.
The E-510 also has faster frame rate than my E-1, 3.3 vs. 2.8FPS.
[Update]
E-510 has a bit of a learning curve, I didn't get decent photos out of it straight away. You have to balance Noise Reduction, ISO and sharpening. I found that turning sharpening to -2, gave me better, more E-1 like results.

I handled the E-510 briefly at the local store today, they were actually unpacking the boxes as I dropped by. First impressions follow.

First the bad: It's a very boring design. A grip, centered lens, buttons around the screen, flimsy control wheel.
The E-400 design made more sense to achieve the ultimate lightness/compactness.
The shutter really jolts the camera compared to the E-1 (I'm spoiled).

The good: It is quite responsive, everything just snaps into place, even mirror-down-up-down-up live view shooting isn't as bad as it sounds. The live view has very little lag, but I would use it for action shots.
The IS really works, but I got the feeling that the mirror vibration would make it less effective.
Only the 2-lens kit is available now, body only in "few weeks" which could mean anything, the dealer guessed 6-8 weeks.
I might get the 2 lens kit, and sell it when the E-3XP is going to be available.

[Updated]

With any news bits of this type, there is always the GOOD, the BAD, and the CONFLICTING reports. Let us start with the GOOD: the New Zuiko Lens Road Map is finally here and its certainly not short of surprises. Brace yourself, there is a New [UltraWide Standard Lens probably between 8 - 18mm (16-36mm equiv.35mm)] in the works for 2008. Though unconfirmed, its clearly highlighted in the Map. Similar ranges, with the Nikon(17-35mm) and Canon (16-35mm), make this a very typical choice, and important catagory to fill.

The BAD news however, is surrounding the release date for the most highly anticipated of all the newly announced lenses in the PMA 2007 show; the awesome [14-35mm F2.0 SWD] will be pushed back until 2008. Don't care much for this lens, what about the rest i hear you say?. Well, here is the CONFLICTING part, though the Map clearly shows all 3 lenses
[12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD / 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 SWD / 70-300mm F4.0-5.6] as being release in 2007, and while FourThirds ORG confirms this, Their 4/3 Lens Catalog '07 states otherwise, as shown on page 20.

ZUIKO DIGITAL Lens Map

What does all this mean, the great ones, will be making a Grand Late Entrance, probably along with the release of the Evolt-P1. So just stay tunes for more....

Cheers, Bobot

Well, so the PMA is over. I think Four Thirds users can be pretty happy, 2 (and a half) cameras, handful of new lenses with SWD motors, image stabilization, new lenses from Leica/Panasonic with new motors, and the E-1 successor finally on the horizon.
So what do we have?

Cameras