I've been looking at solutions for a light carry camera for a while. I've been wanting a camera that was small and light to carry when I was carrying other stuff and/or doing other things so I could always have something on me. With my return to school this has become somewhat urgent as I'm carrying too much stuff for school to carry the D300 regularly.


The normal solution would be a P&amp;S. Unfortunately I loathe them. Poor high ISO performance (I'm flash-phobic) and for the most part no wide-angle, and responsiveness is generally poor. And the Altoids tin form-factor with awkward controls is just not my bag. 


I've been using a Nikon FE2 in this role, but it's not nearly ideal. I'm stuck with whatever film is loaded (which is usually colour at ISO 400 or 800, or Tri-X at ISO 1600) so it's not really setup for real low light at any point. And I greatly prefer its handling with the MD-12 on it, which eliminates the entire 'Light Carry' thing. 


So I'd been considering 3 possibilities.


The Canon XSi - Live View, shockingly good VF and handling for a Rebel, good noise performance. Meters with anything I can mount on the front (including my 4 Contax/Yashica lenses) butcan't use my 16-85VR or 10-20 due to requiring an aperture ring for stop-down metering. No AF confirm with most lenses unless more expensive adaptors are puchased. Different batteries and media from the D300


Nikon D40 series - Mounts any F mount lenses, small, great ergonomics for the size, mounts and AF confirms with all my lenses. Doesn't meter with anything non-CPU. No AF with screwdriver lenses. Different batteries and media from the D300. Dirt cheap (D40 especially). Fully supports both 16-85 and 10-20 including AF and VR.


Panasonic G1 - Frikkin Tiny. Live View with flip-out screen. Can have just about anything you can think up mounted and metered. 2x crop (No wide with any of my lenses). No support for 16-85VR or 10-20 due to same reason as the Canon. Tiny Pancake 20/1.7 announced, but not arriving until sometime in 2009. No idea on pricing. Different Battery and media from the D300. Unknown IQ, but likely inferior to the Canon.


I'd been leaning towards the G1, if only because of how small it will be with a pancake or adapted compact M mount lens (I was thinking the 40 Summicron as a second lens). But then I tripped over a D40 for $300 or so. At that price (Half what the XSi or D60 cost, likely half of the G1's cost) it was a no-brainer. So I've got my Light Carry camera. We'll see how it works out. 
