Ultimately though, despite its foibles, we liked the E-3; it feels great in the hand (even if it demands a longer than average learning curve), produces pleasing output most of the time, and has some really useful features. It sits at the heart of a system that is slowly maturing into a serious competitor for the dominant players, with some superb lenses, particularly the fast zooms.
If Olympus could only find a sensor to match the quality of the camera itself and the lenses available, the E-3 would have been lifted into a class of its own. As it is, this is a camera that will keep the faithful happy, and one that offers some unique features at a good price, but one that is unlikely to see eBay suddenly flooded with high end Nikon and Canon gear as professionals and serious photo enthusiasts dump their systems and jump trains to the Four-Thirds express. Features like in-body IS and a tilting screen are all well and good, but a camera at this level needs to offer the ultimate image quality and total shooting versatility, and here the E-3 stuggles to match its direct competitors.
