Olympus E300

The Evolt offers just about every pro feature found on comparable D-SLRs, such as shutter and aperture priority, manual exposure, exposure and white-balance bracketing, variable flash intensity, noise reduction, the ability to select presets or color-temperature (K) white-balance settings, customizable defaults, and various metering and focus options.

The Evolt is a true single-lens reflex - an SLR - with an eye-level through-the-lens optical viewfinder and interchangeable lenses.

Although well marked, the manual controls are scattered about the top and back of the camera. The buttons on the four-way jog button are dual-purpose controls, and there's only one subcontrol dial (instead of two) for changing shutter speeds and f-stops. Alongside the manually-operated flash is an intelligent hot shoe.

The Evolt's high-resolution 1.8-inch LCD screen is bright, sharp, and easy to view from almost any angle. Its optical viewfinder incorporates a unique four-mirror porro viewing system instead of the usual triangular pentaprism.

The right side features the CompactFlash Type I/II card slot behind a plastic panel.

On the left side, two rubber panels fold back to expose the mini USB port and charger port.