Incredible quality and color

Olympus always leads the way, having done so with film equipment - the smaller, lighter OM-1 - then with TTL metering, ad OTF flash metering, etc. Too many firsts to mention. So I was eager to have their first and the world's first digital from top to bottom SLR. And I have not been disappointed.

The color from the 5.1 megapixel CCD is astounding. I have shot sunsets with clouds, early morning mountaintops, portraits under every kind of condition, and the color is always excellent. The color using flash is also superb, which is difficult especially when using it as fill.

The body does everything Olympus says it does, giving the user freedom of expression. Program exposure is very accurate, even under backlit situations, and of course I have options from every automatic to everything manual. Controls are sensibly placed (with the lone exception of the WB control on the front of the camera, which I hit too often), easy t use, and easy to return to default.

The body is a ton lighter than the Nikon D2H (which I use in my employment with a newspaper), making it much easier at the end of the day, when pictures still need to be made. It is strong, scratch resistant, water resistant, etc. Well made, as always from Olympus.