The Panasonic GF2 is undoubtedly smaller than its predecessor, the Panasonic GF1, but it's not quite as tiny as the diminutive Sony NEX 5 and 3 compact system cameras, although they suffer in comparison by not having a built-in flash unit.The DMC-GF2 has a slightly raised and curved vertical area on the front-right of the body which acts as a handgrip. It's a little larger than the GF1's but still not of much assistance.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 is now one of the smallest cameras of its type, although it's still not as tiny as the NEX-5 despite having a smaller sensor than the Sony's APS-C chip. The key difference is in the body height, though, which reflects the Panasonic GF2 hot shoe and built-in flash: features which are missing from the NEX. The NX100 doesn't have a flash either. The GF2 will be available in black, red or silver. Panasonic says it's about 19 percent smaller than its predecessor and 7 percent lighter. It retains most of the GF1's blocky, almost retro, styling. The Panasonic GF2 is made mainly of metal, so it feels pleasingly solid.
The Lumix GF2 main innovation is its touchscreen interface, with a newly revamped GUI that's easy on the eye. Panasonic have wisely restricted the amount of things that you can do by interacting with the screen, and indeed you can still operate everything on the camera without having to push and prod the LCD at all. But you would be missing out on a lot of genuinely useful functionality that really improves the shooting experience.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 is definitely not a natural successor to the GF1 that it replaces, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a great camera in its own right that's well-suited to its new target audience.
