Companies that aren’t Canon or Nikon have it rough in the digital camera market—particularly outside the cheap point-and-shoot area. Some band together for strength in numbers, creating cooperative standards like Panasonic, Olympus and Leica’s new Micro Four Thirds system—a spec for smaller cameras with digital viewfinders like a compact, but interchangeable lenses, manual controls and higher performance like a DSLR. We tested Panasonic’s 13-megapixel Lumix G1, paying close attention to the fact that it’s the first contender in a totally new camera category and—like that other G1, the Android smartphone—it sets the stage for what’s to come.

There is a single photo that you should think long and hard about before deciding whether to plunk down $800 for the G1. And oddly enough, it wasn’t even shot with the camera itself.

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