I have just UPGRADED my Canon 7D system to a Panasonic GX7 system. I am one happy chappie.

I do not change my gear that often or easily. It has been 3 or 4 years since I made such an UPGRADE.

I know that my choice of UPGRADE to a CSC (compact system camera) may raise a few eyebrows. Surely the logical UPGRADE path for me was to a full frame sensor system, because of what those sensors can do at the extremes of print size or low lighting levels?

No, I disagree. I could have bought a full frame system, but made a better choice. Better?

I think for each one of us 'true photographers' there is a most ideal available camera system, that OPTIMISES better than any other system to the way we really produce output and the way we really use our cameras. For many of us, this optimum could lie with the new breed of bridge cameras. For many more, a CSC with their great lens choices. For a few, a big full frame DSLR system (but much fewer than dictated by marketing and lust). And for a spectacularly few few, a view camera on a 50 pound tripod, shooting one sheet of film at a time.

For me, and I suspect for many others, including many who are not aware of it, a micro four thirds camera and lens system is absolutely optimal. It is a joy to carry around outdoors, a joy to handle, a joy to shoot with, and a joy to produce output with the files.

It is interesting to see a number of pro photographers moving to CSCs. Not to save money. Not to settle for second-rate photos, either. But because these systems are now capable of delivering genuine high quality and high performance.

Did anyone else get an UPGRADE for Christmas? Tell us how you UPGRADED to something closer to your true optimum. Especially if you did not move along the 'thoughtless path' to ever-bigger sensors.

Enjoy your New Year in photography.

P.S. the Sony A7 cameras do not IMHO qualify as CSCs, although they will surely be marketed as such. The physical laws of optics dictate that their lenses will always be too large to truly meet the grade.