Olympus E420/520?

[colorado family]

Looking at the Olympus line for my first Digital SLR. I would like something on the smaller side, easy to use. Anyone know about the Olympus cameras? Should I be searching another brand?

[kgosden]

Well, you will find 4/3rd's bashers and insanely loyal owners here. I guess I fall into the later category if only due to long term Olympus ownership. However, if I was starting over I might buy a different brand. I currently have the E520, and have had the E500 and E510. Do not take this as a fanatic ownership thing, just that I have an investment in lenses that I enjoy and cannot replace at once.

The Ex20 series are fine cameras. As most of the brand bashers will point out other brands probably offer better performance when you get north of ISO 400. At the current price points other brands tend to have less features than the Olympus cameras and few would argue that the Olympus kit lenses are top notch.

In the entry level DSLR category how the camera feels in your hand and how the menus work for you are probably the major factors. I say this assuming your goals are family and vacation photos up to 8x10 or so. If the camera does what you want when you want it to then you will get decent results. If you are an experienced SLR user and expect to be making art prints then your needs are more specific. Honestly, there are no DSLR's that will give you bad results if you give yourself time to learn the basics. Sure they all have a full auto mode, but if that is all you use you might be better off with a high end superzoom.

Since you mention small size it maybe worth looking at the new Panasonic micro-4/3rds camera. It is a little bit smaller than the E420, but still uses a 4/3rd's sensor. I handled one a few weeks ago and found that the EVF (electronic viewfinder) was really quite good. The price point is a bit high for what you get, but nothing is smaller at the image or lens quality.

[raven15]

What he just said. The main benefits to Olympus DSLR's are performance/price ratio and performance/size ratio. In practice they are probably the ideal cameras for daytime use. If you primarily use it at night (or even 20% at night) you might look at something else, though my reasoning for this is slow focus with the kit lenses more so than noise. I have an E-410 and have rarely had an ISO issue that wouldn't be solved by image stabilization, though I have had a number of instances where my low-end lenses were reluctant to focus in low light/low contrast.