Olympus (especially that new model) are just unbelievable, but its the lack of equipment and the lack of canon/nikon technology and image quality that is different.

Buying a Canon/Nikon for the name is not like buying a BMW for the name. In digital cameras canon and nikon are straight up, hands down the best 2 digital (consumer) camera makers in the world.

If your talking high end then find the digital mamya or hasellbad (sp) cameras that are 35mp each and go for around 20grand or something crazy haha

 

When I first started researching cameras my coworkers brought his in to work and if I remember correctly it is that same model you're looking at (I may be wrong but I know it was an olympus with a similar model number) ... I played with it a little and took various shots (mostly in raw mode) and saw nothing to complain about .. only reason I didn't go that route was the size. Have you researched sites that have pro and user reviews? I'm sure you have but some of the better ones to start with are:

http://www.steves-digicams.com
http://www.dcresource.com
http://www.dpreview.com

there a ton of others but I found those to be the most useful.

 

The pics I took at mid ohio ( I have a thread posted) was with my Nikon D50 and a Tamron 28-300 3.5-6.3

 

Thanks Kewl...I am going to keep my Cybershot for compact/point and shoot reasons. For my next cam, I am not concerned about the size...I want a great camera. I understand megapixels are not an issue as much as the "image sensor" size. You may have seen your co-workers E-410 which was the previous model, but it has lesslow-light and JPEGquality. So help a dumb guy...everyone...and please explain the difference between regularfiles and "raw" files. You guys rock!

 

Raw gives you 5 pictures on the card as compared to 500 jpegs. Ok, kidding there a little.

Raw is basiclly an uncompressed image. All of the other formats like jpeg and bmp or tiff are compressed images. Raw is intended to be edited and formatted by a talented person using a good editing program like photoshop.

 

Opps.... forgot to add:

This is my basic knowledge of the raw format. I'm sure there is a much more technical defintion.

 

RAW gives you more control over white balance (can be changed in Kelvin or presets), its pretty much what the camera sees "RAW" it's not going to come out looking like a JPEG (which the camera processes internally). Contrast/brightness/hue/white balance etc etc must all be processed after words on your computer (a lot of work which is why i don't use RAW much unless its a photoshoot of incredible cars haha)

You can't go wrong with either canon or nikon, the one thing i tell people is....go to the store and play with anything and everything you can. Buying a camera because someone on the internet might not be too wise, a lot of sites have good reviews and ratings but hey your going to be using it not steve from digicam.

Good luck with your search and any questions you have feel free to send em my way. Check out nikoncafe.com and photography-on-the.net (canon photographers from all over the world, a good portion of em are pros)