Be Excellent To Each Other

Can anyone recommend a good camera in the <£400 price range that is a good DSLR alternative?

Sometbing in a micro four-thirds mount? Like a Panasonic GF6 perhaps?

I have a Panasonic GF3, it is nice and small for what it is, but I have to say that when I compare the pictures to my 7yr old Fuji finepix instant camera which cost ~£80 , it is quite difficult to tell the difference. Some of the features from a DSLR, eg manual focus are actually not very good because of the differential between what is seen on the display and what is actually taken - obviously this doesn't happen in a DSLR. Basically, theya re nice and they have a few extra features over instant cameras, but they aren't a replacement for a DSLR.

I'm talking as someone who shoots with a Nikon d5000 and a Panasonic GF1 on a daily basis and I have no idea what you're taking about.

I was in the position last year SDG, I opted initially for a Panasonic GF3 (latest version of this being GF6 I think). This got stolen so then I replaced it with a Nikon D3100 DSLR and I must admit whilst it was daunting to begin with I've begun to get the hang of it (and of course it has an Auto mode which gets used a lot!)

I think that I'd convinced myself that a bridge camera offered neither the compact size of a decent normal digital camera nor the flexibility of a DSLR. And as I am frivolous opted for an entry level DSLR!

I find the manual zoom on the GF3 to be poor, what appears to be in focus on the screen is not in focus on the photo. I put this down to the disparity between screen and lens, something you do not get in an SLR. Auto focus it is great, but then so is my cheap fuji camera, so why buy a GF3? I don't own a DSLR, so can't comment on the difference between a GF3 and DSLR.