In reply to Mr. Lee:
I was looking at this a couple of weeks ago, when I bought an S100. I also thought it would make a good climbing camera, of the bigger type, to replace a DSLR. I'd previously written off 4/3 cams because they're too big for a pocket but lack the DSLR IQ. The lenses on the 4/3 are often so big that overall they're not much smaller than a Nikon 3100 DSLR.
I thought the G3 might be better when teamed with the compact 14-42 powerzoom but this lens got so many poor reviews, and as it's quite expensive, I didn't think it was worth it.
http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/lenses/panasonic_x_14-42_3p5-5p6...
I was also a bit put off with the batteries. It seems you can't get generic batteries for a Panasonic (wrong?) so my usual tactic of getting 2 or 3 generic spares, to deal with the cold, made it very expensive.
There's so many good cameras around now, and so many are so similar, that I think it's really important, at least for a climbing camera, to go into a shop and see what these things are actually like in the flesh. Once in the hand, you immediately write off some otherwise very nice cameras.
