Around a month ago I was elated to be gifted my very first DSLR camera, The Olympus E-510.
This little camera I've come to really love. It's got everything a photographer could want from their very first DSLR.
First and for most my favorite feature, this little baby has built in image stabilization. Considering the lenses I'll be buying this feature works great, I haven't had a blurry image yet, and with this feature included I won't have to spend extra on lenses to have the feature included. That is a costly addition, for a college student and hobbyist, to any lens.
Next up is the sensor cleaning. The E-510 has self-cleaning image sensor. While eventually I'll probably have to clean it myself, I haven't seen any specks on my pictures. Because, every time I turn the camera off the sensor cleans itself, super simple. The sound of the cleaning process is a bit sickening though, kind of like the sound of a dying hard-drive. Just relax and read the manual if you don't believe me. Just the cleaning cycle.
Image quality should be touched on, seeing as that is a major factor for a camera. My thoughts: Awesome. I haven't been disappointed. The pictures, as long as they are adjusted appropriately and the focus is set, come out crisp and full of detail. The added DoF (from the 3/4 format) really are nice if you like landscape shots. The color quality is fantastic and usually true to life, but make sure to manually set the White-Balance for that because the automatic on this camera sometimes makes this a lot cooler then they need to be so you can easily end up with a lot of smurf people & land shots.
Other nice features of this camera are: 10 MP images, lots of preprogrammed shooting modes, mechanical auto-focus with the option for manual focus, the camera is lighter then most, feels and is durable, brand name lens (even kit lens) are high quality. This camera even has an automatic mode for people who are shy of the more manual settings.
Also the actual kit compared to the big two (Nikon and Canon) of a comparable camera is actually a cheaper option.
A bit of warning, this camera isn't for everyone. If you want one that has large amount of compatible lenses, you'd do better to buy a Nikon or Canon. Also the lenses for the Olympus camera's tend to be more expensive then the other two populars as well as harder to find in actually physical stores.
Other then that also be sure that there are some users who have complained the camera is too small in their hands or that the camera's LCD is to small for the resolution of the pictures it's taking, and I agree with that latter point, but I don't spend too much time chimping so it's not a problem to me. I only double check the screen previews every so often to make sure my white balance is ok.
All in all this is a wonderful camera for a first timer who is looking for something that is reasonably priced but has a forgiving learning curve but includes all the bells and whistles to make a pro feel confident.
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