With so much outsourcing these days I wonder than any established brand can be relied on to make the product themselves. My two Ricoh compacts probably have Sony CCDs and who knows the rest of them could be made by Casio. Pentax has had a history of farming out production - Cosina and Centon in film days and now Samsung. Who knows who made a Rollei since it went bust originally? Sigma used to make lenses called all sorts of things. Who makes the current inexpensive(!!) Zeiss and Leica lenses? I would guess Cosina which also makes the Zeiss Ikon rangefinder and the lamented Epson digi-rf along with its own fine Voigtlander range. The existence of a Samsung CMOS in its own GX20 and the Pentax K20D should give confidence. Sony make fine sensors but why can't Panasonic do the same? How many well-branded lenses are actually made by Tamron and Tokina? Who actually cares so long as whatever it is works well?