The weight of the E-3 is an issue for me, as is the weight of many (not
all) the 4/3 lenses. In general it seems to me that Olympus has not
really fulfilled one of the main the goals/promises of the 4/3 system,
that being smaller/lighter. The E-3 with the new 12-60 weighs as much as
my current D200 with Tokina 16-50. Yes there may be some advantages with
the Olympus (IS & longer longer reach on the zoom) but you are trading a
larger sensor and a constant f2.8 lens to get it.
And weight does matter to some folks. When I am climbing, backpacking,
or cycle touring it matters a lot - in fact I still carry film cameras
(OM or XA) in many cases because of the weight savings.
While I am not ready financially to purchase a new rig the E-510 looks
much more attractive to me. Combined with the 14-40 f3.5~5.6 it actually
beats my 'gold standard' climbing camera (OM-4ti + 35-70 f3.5~4.5 Zuiko)
for weight.
Of course, the Nikon D40x + 18-55 Nikkor will do the same thing and
allow me to stay with a system I already have.
I am not saying that there are not some impressive things about the E-3
and the Olympus digitals in general, but for me one of the things that
excited me when the system was announced was that promise that by
designing the system from the ground up and around a 4/3 sensor there
would be a lighter and more compact system available - I just have not
really seen that, at least for the type of system I would be using.
Jim Couch
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