You'right to mention Leica's awaited product upgrade. This GF-1 is obviously a nice camera, but it's still not for me. Same niche as Olympus EP-1. Both great cameras, certainly, but the key element is that they are "sexy" or "exciting", to use words found in this thread. These cameras target the photographer's fethishistic instinct: he can't resist that "different" look & feel, lot of control in a relatively small package. That "Leica" distinctive philosophy.
I like these cameras. But I won't buy them. I'm pretty loyal to my equipment. It takes time to master a camera, you have to make it your everyday's companion. I'm sometimes surprised to see people ready to dump their 1 year old camera, just because there's a new toy on the market offering a marginal gain on a specific labo test. My motto is: you shouldn't consider buying a new camera before having really proved to use 100% of the possibilities of the old one. The "user's skill level" margin is far wider (and visible) than any tech/labo test. Then, you should choose the one you feel the most comfortable with. Size, weight, even more ergonomy. And features, of course.
My next purchase is the Canon G11, not because it would be "sexier" or "exciting", just because it is exactly designed for my expectations, offers a lot of versatility, and is really complementary to the high end DSLR used in my work. Small size sensor ? Well, maybe. But if I need THAT level of definition, I'll use a DSLR anyway. No HD video ? Don't care. I even like that minimalism. But the G11 offers an optimal ergonomy (controls, menus, shape...), a rotating screen that proved to be useful in my old G3.
And, most important point, an optical viewfinder. You can question the quality of this viewfinder, but at least, it's there, and that's something I want in any camera I would use for years, even a compact. This is how I like to shoot: my eyes looking directly to the world itself, and not to a LCD device, so performant it could be. The most sophisticated element in a camera is YOUR EYE, and your curiosity for what's happening around you. I will nevert sacrify the viewfinder for the sake of interchangeable lenses (again, would use DSLR instead). The price tag of such a system is not justified by the benefits... The only features I will miss on the G11 is a true (fixed, not interchangeable) lens/focus/zoom control, instead of the electrical ones. It would be less compact. But that would really be "a camera reduced to the best".
