It’s a good time to be looking for “the little camera that could.” If you’re willing to spend $300-$500, there are some really compelling options out there. The Panasonic LX series is great, and for a little more you can pick up the excellent Nikon P7000. Now Olympus has a new entry to this particular arena, the XZ-1, and although the price and specs aren’t published yet, I can see from here that it’s got a sweet little lens.
It’s an F/1.8-2.5 4x zoom from Zeiss Zuiko (28mm equivalent at the short end), and from the HD logo on there we can guess that it does shoot HD video of some sort. Beyond that there isn’t much to say, but it does look like an effective little camera, and depending on its performance, a worthy competitor to Panasonic.
Personally, I’m still waiting for the Fujifilm X100. The metal!