Olympus PEN E-P3

The Olympus PEN E-P3 is Olympus's latest flagship Micro Four Thirds camera. Critics say it's the best one of these compact, interchangeable-lens cameras that Olympus has turned out yet, but it's saddled with an oddly outdated image sensor that makes it an also-ran behind Micro Four Thirds cameras from Panasonic, including the flagship Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 (*Est. $900 with kit lens) .

Throwback 1960s-esque styling and a solid metal case make the E-P3 "a very pretty camera indeed," says DPReview.com. It's pocketably slim (about 1 1/3 inches thick) and weighs just over 11 ounces. The build quality helps justify the price, PhotographyBlog.com says: "You literally feel that you're getting what you're paying for in this instance." The E-P3 has corrected nearly all of the problems critics found with its forebears, the E-P1 and E-P2 (*Est. $510) : It's fast (especially at autofocusing), with a high-resolution 3-inch OLED screen and better controls.

Photos look great overall -- although, as usual, not quite as good as a full-size digital SLR camera -- but an aging 12.3-megapixel image sensor drags the E-P3 down in low light. The sensor is "essentially the same as that which we first saw in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 almost three years ago," and it's looking dated, says DPReview.com. "It's a pity the E-P3 doesn't use the same 16 MP sensor as the Panasonic [Lumix DMC-]G3 (Discontinued) ." The E-P3 shoots full 1080 HD video that DigitalCameraReview.com says is "on par with the competition," but CNET's Lori Grunin reports "egregious rolling shutter (wobbling)" when she shoots video with the E-P3.