Olympus EVOLT E-410 Digital Camera

The camera was bought as a Christmas present for self/family. We already have a compact digital Olympus,which has been very good for most purposes but wanted something with higher resolution and more ability to control the settings particularly with flash settings and aperture/shutter speed. we found that indoor shots were often out of focus with no way of actually controlling the focus. Took advice from a professional photograher friend as we wanted the camera to be as light and small as possible. Read lots of reviews online which indicated that it was a good buy. The Olympus is apparently the lightest and smallest at the moment . The cost from the main retailers was likely to be high with one asking over £700 at the time and most with only one lens but found the item on eBay offering a bonus of two lenses for under £400 so took a chance.
It has a large screen and has live view so you have the choice of using the view finder or screen to take pictures. The pictures are stored on Compact Flash cards or Olympus XD which was an atttraction as we already have some large XD cards for use with the Compact camera
So far we are very pleased with purchase. The quick start intruction sheet was in French?? but main book in English. Still learning the finer points of use but results so far with Christmas pictures taken indoors and out have been very good and the instruction book is clear.
The whole thing is heavier,bulkier and less convenient than the compact camera but am looking forward to the extra picture quality and variation that can be achieved.
Did consider the Nikon and Canon alternatives but they were heavier and /or didn't have the live view.
Happy with decision.