Is an upgrade from Lumix G3 viable for a noob photograhper?

Hi, I'm also pretty much a lurker on DPreview, and I own the G3 14-42 and the 30 and 19mm sigmas along with some other lenses. A bit over a year ago I decided I wanted a smaller camera, and bought the Gm1, which has similar image quality to the GX7, and the other new cameras. As far as I can tell the G6 does not offer the same step up in image quality, which is noticeable with the Gm1. So if you do want to buy a new camera I would suggest you go for the Gx7 EM-10 or the G7 when it drops in price a bit.

However, I would suggest that the biggest difference in image quality you would gain would come from replacing the 14-42mm (if you use it much now you've got the sigmas), as I found the images I was getting from that lens to be pretty disappointing. As to what lens to go for, that will depend on what you need; given you've got the telephoto and some standard primes, I would suggest you buy a wide angle lens (to replace the wide end of the 14-42) or a faster lens. If you want a cheap wide angle, the 14mm is pretty nice for its price, but something like the 12mm olympus or 9-18mm would obviously give you something significantly different from the 19mm.

If you want to be able to shoot in lower light. I think a brighter lens would be more useful than a small improvement in high ISO performance. The cheaper options are the pan 20mm f1.7 and the oly 45mm f1.8 or the pan 42.5mm f1.7 if its cheap where you live as it'll have IS. If you can afford it, I would suggest the 15mm f1.7 which would give you a bright wide angle general purpose lens, I tried the 20mm f1.7 and didn't like the images i go from it so sold it, but the 15mm seems to produce lovely images (the 17mm f1.8 from olympus is the other option but haven't tried it myself).

Wow that was a rant, hope it helps!

Andy