So I've lugged D70 & D90 around for the last few years. It been a love hate relationship. Love the photos I can take with it hate the cost and the weight.

Well last weekend I rolled my canoe and the dry bag failed, ripped on a rock, so time for a new camera.

I refuse to deal with shutter lag.
I want RAW capability
I want good ISO and white balance control
I want full manual options for shutter and Aperture.
Lighter would be good
Lens interchangeability would be nice but a good fast fix lens would be OK

Probably going down the 4/3 body style this time.

Price is not to big of concern. I'm not ready to spend $8K on the Leica M9, my dream camera, but < $1500 would be good.

Sorry to hear of the loss of your kit.

The Olympus E420 ticks those boxes. No in-body image stabilisation though.

Nice and light (for a DSLR): Camera ~380g 14oz. 14-42 lens ~190g 7oz. Battery ~50g

Yeouch! I second the condolences on your drowned kit.

The E-420 is still the reigning lightweight dslr champ. For a little more weight and bulk, the E-620 adds effective in-camera IS and an articulated display--both are true productivity tools, not mere gadgets. Alan Dixon reviewed the 620 a few months back, if you've not seen that yet.

µ4/3 offers a world of lightweight possibilities but the CDAF focus speed remains a half-step behind dslr phase-detection AF. They add truly useful video to the equation, in case that's an attraction, and the latest EVFs are literally brilliant.

I'm not well versed in Pentax's offerings, but they're unique in having water-resistant bodies that are relatively compact and light. (Oly's weatherproof E-3 is a tank, by comparison.) Pentax also has beautiful compact primes. Might be worth a look as well.

Happy shopping, I hope you end up with a system that fills all your needs.

Cheers,

Rick

I'm pretty happy with my Canon G11. It's 14.9 oz with camera body, memory car, battery, and strap. It's a gem. Sorry about your camera. I lost mine in a similar fashion. It was attached to my sternum strap and I fell during a river crossing. It hit the water for just a second and was ruined. No fun. Good luck with your search.

OMG, -5 on drowning your gear... that really sucks.

I've been raving about my new Lumix GF1 w/ 20mm pancake since I got it at Christmas time. Micro-4/3 has everything you need for about $1,000, if you want a zoom as well as the pancake, you'll need to spend about another $300. Definitely worth looking into. The 20mm pancake is just an incredible lens. I've been using mine without a zoom (prolly get a zoom once I've saved up a bit) and I'm lovin' it so far.

At the very least, check out the GF1 at a camera store (if you can find one) and take a few shots. It is quite addictive! :-)

If you would like to stay in the dslr realm I would seriously consider 4/3rds & u4/3rds offered by olympus, leica and panasonic. A few others are getting into the smaller sensor realm (samsung-nx10).
These tend to be lighter, more compact and cheaper (body and lenses). I have an olympus e510, I typically carry the zuiko 14-42mm (28-84mm 35mm eq.)& 40-150mm(80-300mm eq) lenses and the set 2 lenses w/ body) is under 2lbs. The whole package cost me ~$400 new.

Its probably worth seeing if there's anywhere near you who might hire out micro 4/3 gear, and give it a go to see how you feel about the autofocus speed. At the very least, a camera shop who have one you can play with would do.

They're a cut above compact cameras in most ways. By way of a bonus, you could probably fit them in a smallish peli case too, and not have to worry the next time you end up in the drink.

For a fixed lens compact you can't really go wrong with a Canon S90, but it might not have the performance you'd like.

Thanks everyone for the kind word on my loss.

I read the thread a few below this "Time for a new camera" one after I posted my question.

With that info and more confirmation in this thread plus DP Review I was torn between the GF1 and the LX3

I went with the GF1 with the 20mm pancake lens. May still pick up the LX3 as the toss around camera (water sports camera)since it is reasonably priced. I'll reserve the GF1 to hiking and land lover duty.

I'll report back after I've used it a bit.

Awesome choice! Have fun with it... can't wait to see the first pictures on the forums. :-)

Announced yesterday:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/19/panasonic-announces-pricing-availability-for-lumix-g2-g10/