I've shot with lots of cameras over the years. Olympus cameras are an enigma. When you shoot with them you realize that they have weaknesses(well publicized) to other brands, but you also quickly realize they have plenty of strengths as well.

The biggest strengths are things that go unnoticed on a spec sheet: Exposure, white balance, color reproduction, and image clarity and sharpness. And a JPG engine that gets it right directly out of the camera so you don't have to spend hours making your photos look right. You also get in body IS that works on every lens, and a superior weatherproofing system that includes the body and the lenses.

The E5 is a perfect blend of everything Olympus has learned up to this point. It's not on the cutting edge of sensor technology, or movie making abilities, but it absolutely delivers in every sense of the word. Of course the build quality is spectacular. You can take this camera anywhere, anytime and not worry about it... Read more

The Olympus E-5 is best of breed.

The pictures are the sharpest I have ever seen at any resolution. I am not worried that the image size is only 12 megapixels as I made beautiful 20 X 30 enlargements with the E-510 which only has 10 megapixels.

The great thing about the E-5 is the pictures are spot on perfect in .jpg. I never liked the extra steps, time, and storage required for raw, and the Olympus processor does a flawless job in camera.

I never used white balance on previous cameras because it always worked lousy. Olympus has changed all of that. I recently did some shoots in rooms with different types of florescents. The auto white balance was dead on in all of them, even though the flourescents were different color temperatures. The auto white balance works equally well outdoors. Shooting under tungsten light or using flash, I would suggest changing from "auto" to the apropriate setting (either daylight or flash).

As for noise at... Read more

First compared to the D300; I like the e-5 except for the limited high ISO which falls short of the Nikon. The flaw I had with the e-30 was poor performance in autofocus in low light conditions. The e-5 auto-focus is much better than both cameras (IMHO). I typically shoot in a studio environment so I rarely shoot beyond 200 ISO. However, I do shoot for postcard sales and the e-5 looks great in the color and it's very detailed image - really nice. The new processor is exceptional and the umph it gives to my Olympus lenses is un-believable. All in all I'm very happy with the e-5 and will now start selling off the Nikon camera and lenses.

Nothing against Nikon, I used them for over 40 years and made many exceptional photographs. A year ago I was at a photoshoot with my Nikon(s)and realized that everyone is getting the same image - I wanted my work to be different, so I went to an Olympus.