Had a proper chance to sit down with the E-P1 today and look at the much discussed area of autofocus. Here's my brief summary.

The Olympus E-P1 uses contrast detection for autofocus – similar to compact cameras. This is different to the Phase Detection systems that most DSLR's employ. This puts it at a general disadvantage and will usually result in slower AF, at least with today's technology. The Pansaonic GH1, another micro four thirds camera, also uses contrast detection, but implements it in such a way that it results in what is generally considered to be class leading performance. 

In short, the Olympus E-P1's AF performance, is, well, much like a compact camera. Key points follow (these are all applicable to the E-P1 with the 14-42mm kit lens mounted):

- Performance  is generally on par with a 'good compact camera'.  To take the Panasonic LX3 as an example, my tests found that the E-P1 focuses slightly slower at the long end and slightly faster at the wide end. On balance, it's pretty much equal to the LX3 and gives a similar experience

- The AF system focuses very accurately and generally does not have an issue obtaining a lock

- Shooting in continuous mode can be troublesome because the camera will try to re-acquire a lock between each shot. To fix this, you can customise the AF button to drive the AF system, leaving the shutter-half-press to lock exposure. This is a setup I use on all my cameras that permit it and I find it gives a *much* better experience with the E-P1. 

- I also setup the camera to allow for combined AF and Manual Focus. Basically the system shoots AF by default but if you turn the focusing ring on the lens, it'll automatically switch to MF and  provide a zoomed in view of the subject. This is a v slick implementation, although I have yet to make good use of it in real world shooting (mostly because I find AF to be suitable for most of my needs).

If you want to shoot sports with this camera, you need to either a) change your shooting style, or b) reset your expectations. This is NOT going to give you AF system where you can 'fire and forget'. If you want to shoot sports effectively with it, you'll need to change your techniques. I suggest some ideas which I've used effectively on compact cameras here:

http://www.lawrenceripsher.com/blog/2007/03/shooting_with_c.html

In short, my summary of the AF system is that I find it perfectly adequate and knew that comign into this, I was buying it for the image quality / feature improvements over a compact camera and not a DSLR-like AF system. I am sure future versions of the camera will improve on this area (and would love to see a firmware update provide a boost also) but generally, I haven't found this to be a problem in real world shooting. For context, I'm coming from a broad perspective, having used a wide range of systems from low end compact cameras all the way up to one of the world's best focusing system in the 1D Mk III (feel free to read my Canon 1D Mk III review if you dispute that last claim). Basically, if you can focus and shoot effectively with a compact camera, you'll be fine with the E-P1. If you can't, then you need to rethink either your purchase or your requirements.