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the only oly I have handled is the first EVOLT(entry level) E300.
The ISO 400 noise was horrible, even some compacts can do better.
If Olympus gets the IS system perfect like the Pentax and can do as good as Nikon/Pentax high ISO, then Oly will actually be the best cam.
I am not too great a fan of live view. A good quality optical viewfinder(Like pentax) will do.
As for switching, I dunno. If I get rich enough to splurge 1000$ and do not have enough canon gear(i.e. I have same as now) I won't mind switching. I handled the K10D at photoimaging Asia, and I must say, the features and that viewfinder had me hooked.
When you use polarizers you need to do a lot of MF as AF performance goes down. 350D is very lousy on the viewfinder front. but then I have heard good things as in using the olympus magnifier with 350D. Its a direct fit and magnifies the viewfinder view, so you can manual focus.

This is really interesting to hear, no OVF can beat that. Even Canon EOS-1D Mark III now comes with live preview, looks like it is going to be must have feature in future.

Edit: Looks like major improvement in ISO front too.

Olympus E-410 EVOLT Review: 15. Photographic tests: Digital Photography Review

Well quite good, but a little too much noise reduction applied.
D40X is quite lousy, and canon is winner as always, but good to see that Oly engineers fixed the noise problem to a large extent, atleast at ISO400!
But there's a catch
ISO 1600 is actually ISO 1250, wherein canon its ISO2000. So canon at ISO 2000 delivers better performance than ISO 1250.
So what did Olympus engineers do,
"Dudes, we can't give clean ISO 1600, so lets label ISO 1250 as ISO 1600 and tell customers we give better high ISO performance :p

Let's wait for E-510 reviews. If the ISO advantage is only 1 stop, then IS might tilt the scale to the other side.

Nope not one stop, but if you compare 1250 to 2000 ISO its 1.5 stops. IS will give you 2 stop advantage on still targets only. And at that too Canon is better at ISO 2000.
I have also extracted usable ISO 3200 from my 350D by underexposing to get a decent shutter speed.
High ISO is Oly achillis heel. They have to do something about it. Because if they don't then whats wrong with a Canon S5 IS instead of a DSLR for somebody who just wants 30-400mm usable zoom range.
As E510, I expect it to be same as E410.
On the positive side Oly is giving many innovative features, and if along with innovation they also start giving the basic things, it will help a lot.
The way I see it today(just an opinion) Pentax makes better sense for people who do a lot of indoor shooting. Their IS system is amazing, and is electromechanical in nature. Real innovative stuff which enables a 2 stop advantage even at 300mm focal lengths!

When oly came out with 8080 it was a breakthrough, and except for limited telephoto it whipped the competition in every respect. Wonder why is oly failing to do so in the DSLR scenario

How is 1250 to 2000 become 1.5 stops, can you explain that? BTW, where did you get this figure 2000 from?

Umm every time you double ISO it means 1 stop, right?
As for ISO 2000, I confused 30D and 400D specs. 30D and 350D share similar sensor and have identical noise performance. On 30D when the camera says ISO 1600, its actually 2000. Ditto for the 5D too.

As for comparo take a RAW file underexposed by 1 stop. And then crank up exposure by one stop in PP. You can get clean images at ISO 1600(making effective ISO 3200) in in the 350D etc.,

Effectively if you look at image quality a canon will have a 1.5 stop advantage of Oly and maybe a 0.5 or less advantage over Pentax

In the dpreview comparison, they say 400D's 1600 is just 1600. So we are only talking 1250 to 1600, only half stop at the most.

Has somebody done this for E-410 too and compared results?

Nope but I have done it for 350D.
If you look closely ISO 800 on the 410 has the same detail as ISO 1600 on the canon. Thats why I said 1 stop.
A workable IS which gives a 2 stop advantage will trump canon, no doubt. But one silly thing in review is that the pentax K100D is not compared.
dpreview does not do any proper IS tests.
A K100D vs E410 is what is needed.
They are fighting the battle of the underdogs.

Is the sony dsc h5 a good camera for about usd 350. Had the dsc H1 before and absolutely loved it ...

Here's the pic I took after changing the ISO to 100,




Here's the pic I took sometime back with Auto Mode.The image isn't clear at all. The red spots can be seen in this pic



Can you pls help me on how to avoid this?Coz earlier it gave clear images with Autos mode even in poor lighting.

I bought the 350D last week with 18-55 kit lens and a 70-300 sigma. I didn't get a tripod so the telephoto is pretty much useless at this moment thanks to my shaking hands.

Anyway, I am looking at purchasing the 50 mm lens but I am still to understand how it is better than the kit lens at telephoto end. Can anyone care to put it in layman terms?

Simply put, that's a better optics.
But why do want to buy that focal length? Your current range already covers that.

If you don't know why 50mm is better, you are not ready for it yet. Meanwhile enjoy your kit lens, keep learning, some day you will grow out of kit lens and start looking for L series.

I have the kit lens and the 50mm 1.8
The kit lens is around F4.5 at 50mm, is not that sharp, but the 50mm prime is really useful for low light and portraits.