The last six months in the digital SLR world have been very interesting. Just as I thought that technological development would start to level off, the big players, Canon and most notably Nikon, started dropping bombshells into the middle market in the guise of the 40D and D300. Adding to this, some of the more niche manufacturers such as Sony and Pentax, announced products like the Alpha700 and K20D which looked like interesting propositions to photographers like myself who prefer the relative svelteness of cameras like the 30D or D200 over their more hairy-chested brethren such as the 1D’s and D3’s of this world.

And then there was the Olympus E-3. I had always had a soft spot for Olympus, having used their diminutive OM’s during my student days and for quite a big part of my professional career, only succumbing to Canon EOS and ultimately Nikon F100’s when Olympus marketing decided they were a bespoke manufacturer and whacked up their prices from the emi...