Richard Franiec continues to make custom grips for high-end compact cameras which inexplicable are missing grips. I have his grip for the Canon S90, and the new one for Olympus Pen Lite (aka "E-PL3") seems equally gorgeous, and I've already ordered it. If I were a camera maker, I'd buy the design off'a him.
The Pen Lite, by the way, is pretty amazing. I think it's the smallest Micro-Four-Thirds camera yet, and it still manages to have a flip-out screen, and the fastest auto-focus on any compact camera yet (as fast as on DSLR cameras). All of those are traits which I have valued highly in cameras for a long time. (The much bigger and more expensive E-P3 doesn't even have a flip screen.)
It'll be interesting to see how it performs with the upcoming 45mm F:1.8 portrait (short tele) lens, a sort which has been missing from the platform until now. The lens is supposedly very good (lenses of that focal length often are), and not even very expensive (unlike the new 12mm wide-angle lens). (To get the 35mm equivalent focal length of a M4/3 lens, just double it.)
Didn't know if you had seen rumblings of this and didn't want to post it on your newest Christmas idea post. Quite sad, really, that they did this. Too bad it's coming to this for camera companies. I do blame the iPhone on some of this; shitty sales, I mean. :-(
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