Instigator
Banned
Damn sorry to hear about that, glad you are okay though.
I have the Panasonic GX1 paired with the 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens and am loving it.. the entire setup is extremely lightweight / portable and the picture quality it's capable of producing is stunning, right up there with DSLRs. Highly recommend going the micro four thirds route.
Depends on what he really wants though. I guess he wants small size yet with DSLR-like controls. That pretty much rules out lower-end m43 models like the E-PM1 or the GF3/5. Then again, how badly does he want a (E)viewfinder? The models with integrated EVFs are bigger and not as "pocketable".
Had he still had his Canon gear, NEX and the mirrorless Canon could be the better option for his lenses.
To top it all, Photokina is just around the corner. Lots of new models will be announced. Olympus will (at last) update its Pen line with, hopefully, some of the same features as the OM-D (sensor and AF in particular). Sony also has the NEX5R and the NEX6 which look like interesting propositions.
Maybe he can try to see which lenses he wants and see which mirrorless system more closely matches his needs.