I've been using an XZ-1 for almost a year now, which is almost as long as it's been out of production. Camera models come and go quickly these days but lessons learned from past models shouldn't.
Before I continue I should emphasize that I've had largely positive user experience with my XZ-1 and what I want to mention are annoyances rather than failures. I certainly have enjoyed the sharpest lens in my collection, elegant design and much else.
The first annoyance I stumbled upon was a two-pronged issue with the macro mode. For one, the camera doesn't have a dedicated button for cycling through focusing modes, something which I was used to from Canon PowerShots and which I found very practical. Instead, you have to go through several clicks and wheel twists.
The second part of the issue is that the macro mode doesn't limit the furthest focusing distance (again I expected this based on prior experience) which makes it quite hard to focus in some situations. This photo of a dragonfly took me many attempts before I managed to trick the camera to focus on the foreground rather than background:
Still on the focusing subject, I found that the lack of any distance scale in manual focusing mode made it hard to use. The central magnified focus preview just isn't good enough a cue to judge if you're shifting focus in the right direction.
Next up is the white balance which is just too red, even in sunlight/cloudy/etc. preset modes. The above photo was taken using automatic white balance which is even more prone to red shift in pretty much any conditions. XZ-1 is quite consistent here and I've learned to mitigate it in raw processing by moving the tint just a little bit towards green but it's still annoying that I even have to do it.
Two things that reviewers complained about but I find acceptable compromises are the dangling lens cap and the display that doesn't tilt. For me they just don't take nearly as much away from usability as the issues above.
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