[Chippy (Nick)]

I'm looking to buy a DSLR. Originally I was pretty sold on the EOS 450D but have been checking out the Olympus E-520. It has a lot of nice features for the price (and feels good in the hand) so was thinking I could put the savings over a Canon EOS 450D towards other good stuff. I have read some very positive reviews, as well as some not so flattering.

1. I would like to hear from anyone that owns an E-520 / E-420 / E-510 about their thoughts of the camera.

2. I'm interested to hear if anyone knows how it is for AP. I will be initially using it for terrestrial only, but may want to get into AP down the track. I'm not worried about getting it modded - but want to be able to get adaptors etc to use it with my refractors. It uses the 4 thirds system/chip so it's a little different to the Canon, Nikon and others in that respect - and uses different lenses. I realise it wouldn't be quite up to the same level as the 450D in sensitivity because of the smaller LMOS sensor - but expect it would still be reasonable. My concern is mainly will I run into compatibility headaches because it's not Canon et al.

Nick.