Panasonic launched the LUMIX GF1 on Wednesday, a Micro Four-Thirds camera that builds on its cousin, the GH1, and mimics its rival Olympus as well.

The Panasonic LUMIX GF1 will be available in early October at a suggested retail price of $899.95; this price will include the LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm/F3.5-5.6 ASPH/MEGA O.I.S. lens. A body with a fixed lens (LUMIX G 20mm/F1.7 ASPH) will also be available for the same price.
In August of 2008, Panasonic and Olympus announced a brand of cameras called ""Micro Four-Thirds"".
Cameras that adhere to this format would offer D-SLR image quality and D-SLR speed in a body significantly smaller than any D-SLR. Since the announcement, Panasonic has launched two cameras, the video-less LUMIX G1 and the HD video capable LUMIX GH1.
Both offer SLR image quality and speed, but neither is much smaller than a traditional D-SLR.
Enter the Olympus E-P1. Launched this past July, this camera's size was spot on with the size reduction promise of Micro-Four thirds.
On Wednesday, Panasonic fired back with the LUMIX GF1. The Micro Four-Thirds camera looks nearly identical to the Olympus E-P1, but squeezes in a built-in flash, something the E-P1 doesn't offer.
The new GF1 will offer a similar feature set as the earlier GH1. Similarities include 12.1-megapixel captures, 3 frame-per-second capture speed and a 3-inch LCD with 461,000 pixels.
Almost all the High-Definition video recording options of the GH1 will be available on the GF1. Auto-focus tracking (continuous AF) will automatically keep your subjects in focus like a camcorder.
Full control over the aperture is also available so you can shoot your video with varying depth-of-field. The GF1 will capture High-Definition video in MPEG at 720p30 or AVCHD at 720p60. It will leave AVCHD 1080p24 recording to the GH1.
In the brief time I spent with the GH1, the vibe I took away from it was that operation and focusing felt just as fast as the GH1. This is excellent. The Olympus E-P1 introduced an ultra-compact build for Micro Four-Thirds while maintaining great SLR-esque image quality, but it never offered auto-focus speeds that were similar to traditional SLR cameras. The G1 and GH1 were significantly faster and felt almost as fast as a traditional SLR. The GF1 felt like same way.
(Source: PC Magazine)