If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, then you’ll know that earlier this year in May I bought a Canon G10 P&S camera to augment my DLSR’s for times when I didn’t want to haul out the big guns and just travel light.  You know – parties, family outings/get-togethers, everyday pocket use, etc. To date, it’s taken some nice pics and overall has been a positive experience. Just the same though, it has some issues that are inherent to the camera that ultimately have driven me to put it on Ebay as I write this. What issues, you ask? Namely, poor high ISO performance, mediocre dynamic range, and overall sluggish responsiveness in general.

Now, I know that coming from a D3 it’s a pretty tough act to follow for a consumer-level pocket camera, but still, it bugs me and thus it pushed me to look at other options. I looked at the new G11, but it’s still not quite where I’d like it to be either, and things like the new micro 4/3 cameras are way too pricey for what they are right now, so those are a no-go too. Which is why I find it somewhat funny that I just happened to come across a camera that seems to fit my needs recently, and at Wal-Mart of all places.

Enter the Olympus E-420 DSLR. Yeah. DSLR. A cheap one too. And from Wally-World yet even. In many ways, a quite perfect camera for my needs – cheap, light, responsive, bigger sensor than a standard P&S, upgradeable for the future, and really small. Really, really small – for a DSLR that is (and some other cams too). For the price, it can’t be beat. And the image quality is quite decent – leaps and bounds over the G10 I think, though the kit lens leaves a bit to be desired and the pop-up flash power just sucks (it’s not a flash so much as a small black hole generator actually, as very little if any light actually gets to your subject and it seems to suck what light is there away). Still, I like it and look forward to putting it through its paces over the coming months. And if you need a G10, here’s the link: Eric’s G10.

For even more fun, here’s a shot with it in comparison to the D3 and D200. It is truly a tiny, tiny little machine.