[Keith Alan]

At Luminous Landscape recently, after listing it's considerable differences the new Panasonic G1 was still referred to as a DSLR.
Doesn't the R stand for Reflex?
And doesn't that mean it has a mirror inside that moves?
My old Polaroid SX70 was a reflex camera, and oddly enough that means it has a mirror that moves inside of it to redirect the image to the viewfinder or to the film.

The G1 has no mirror.
So I must conclude that it's an interchangeable lens digicam, but whatever you want to call it this design is most assuredly NOT a DSLR.

Words have meaning--using the correct ones improves communication.
Using the wrong name to describe something is lazy, sloppy, and in this case inexcusable.
They should know better.

[matthew]

I got stuck on that too when I looked at it a little earlier this evening. If it makes you feel any better (it helped me) the "here we go again" is a reference to the original 4/3 standard. First he called it 'an evolutionary dead end', then he decided that it showed promise, but then he changed his mind again. Maybe we should wait and see what DPReview calls this new class of camera. They have a pretty admirable track record, calling the first camera with Live View "a solution looking for a problem".

There is a marketing problem with choosing a name for this style of camera. 'EVIL' is an accurate and somewhat popular term—Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens—but for some reason Oly and Panny aren't using it.

The irony is that "SLR" is like the term "Colour Television": it distinguishes the current design by differentiating it from something that's essentially extinct. I wonder which would be harder to find new on a dealer's shelf, manufactured within the past year: a black and white TV, or a twin-lens reflex camera? (Yes, probably the TV.)

[Keith Alan]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Micro 4/3 is a great idea for many photographers, but the review sites as usual are a bit out of touch with the real world.
Not everyone wants or needs a big heavy DSLR.

I predict that Micro 4/3 will sell enough to stay viable, and once Olympus gets one on the market and the cattle/consumers get it all explained to them there could be a stampede to buy them.
Have you ever seen an Oly TV commercial?
I bet M4/3 will be the first.

The critical item will be the quality of the EVF.