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Anyone have much to say about this camera? I'm in the market for a decent SLR starter camera for my gf's birthday.

DpReview lists it as Highly Recommended http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/Olympuse510/ and the price seems very good for a digital SLR

#1---I'd look for a camera with a longer lens and cheaper(less costly) flash cards.

I have never had any Olympus and I currently own an XTi but I am learning photography lessons from websites like this one: http://ny.webphotoschool.com/EVOLT_E-510_Basic_Startup/index.html . They use this Evolt E510 in some of their lessons so I think this thing is a serious machine and the price seems very affordable. Note that their lens are not less expensive than Canon's or Nikon's though. You will not have much choice like Canon or Nikon regarding lens, but as an amateur you will only need two, may be three lens maximum. I think it's a good machine to start with. If your gf got bored then you did not waste too much rupies. If she got into photography then she will... buy any better machine later on. Either way, you won't waste too much money

#3, you should tell why a longer lens? 14mm is nicely wide which is very useful for most of indoor situations and 42mm is equivalent to 67.2mm in 35mm film, even fine for portrait.

#3 But could you find a camera in this general price range with those two? I agree, a longer lens would be nice but, as a starter camera, I'm thinking it might be good enough "for now". Plus the free 2GB card makes the card thing a lot less annoying.

I had E-500 and can say it was a great machine!

Okay, went ahead and bought it. Thanks guys!

Your gf is probably used to p&s camera and would want something with live view. This E510 is a great camera but it doesn't have live view. You should have gone with the E420 which is about the same price and was targeted for the females.

I own D90 and D500(NIKONs) Live view future is not my favorite one.If camera will be cheaper with out LV it'll be better. may be they'll make it work better in a future, but for now it's a toy function.

I have owned the E-500 and now the E-520, and I can tell you that Live View is pretty much useless for anything except studio or macro shots on a tripod. Live View on a DSLR is not the same animal as on your P&S.

My girlfriend's last real camera was an old Pentax so this is definitely the type of camera she's looking for.

by the way glad to inform u Price drop on D5000 to 799$ (COSTCO.COM) enjoy:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11479956&whse=BC&Ne=40&eCat=BC|79|83|76275&N=4025522&Mo=12&pos=4&No=11&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=76275&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10604-Cat83&topnav=&SessionID=d255bfb3-9dcd-4347-a849-143b94c1d93b

This is a great camera. And it DOES have live view (#8 clearly doesn't know baconnaise).

Sold out!

refurbished dslr for 360...

this is a great price for an entry level dslr. to bad that the deal is gone.

#4, The lens is actually equivalent to 28-84 in 35mm.

Good camera, and the Zuico lenses are the best kit lenses on the market. I got the two lens kit which has this and a longer (40-150 which is a 80-300 35mm equivalent). It definitely has live view but like someone else said it's not super-useful on a SLR.
It's not that great in low light with the kit lenses, so if you mostly shoot indoors and/or low light situations you'd probably want a faster lens or a different system.
It also does not have an AF assist lamp so it pulses the flash to get focus lock in low light. Kind of annoying and not subtle if you are trying not to draw attention to yourself.

Since I mostly shoot outdoors these are minor annoyances and I think it was a good buy.

#9: There is no Nikon D500.