Just one problem with the Olympus: it doesn’t have a built-in flash. And that’s as big a pain in the butt as it sounds. Also, the E-P1 was one of the very first Micro Four Thirds cameras made and I was eager to see how far the cameras would have come after two years.

February seemed like the perfect time. Olympus and Panasonic would be releasing new Micro Four Thirds cameras. The new Olympus was much like the E-P1, but it had a flash; the new Panasonic was barely larger than the Nikon. After a temporary dalliance with Nikon’s upgraded P6000 (the fairly awesome P7000, with its heroic assemblage of mechanical controls), I knew it’d be one or the other.

I bought a pocket-sized external flash for my Olympus.

After poring through technical specs and a few advance reviews, I couldn’t get excited about either one of those two new cameras. I was hoping for a major advancement in Micro Four Thirds that would materially improve my experience with the Olympus, but I sure didn’t see it in the reviews.

The clincher came when I found a couple of intense hardware teardowns and learned that both cameras were using two-year-old image sensors. I want the next-generation component: the one that’ll allow next year’s Micro Four Thirds cameras to shoot gorgeous photos in practically no light.