Yes, I can certainly recommend the E-500. I've been using that combination for 5 months now, and it is one of the best cameras on the market in the prosumer category, especially considering the excellent value for money of the 2 lens kit. The kit will give you an effective focal length of 28 to 300 mm (recalculated in the old 36mm format). The 40-150mm lens may well be the very best kit lens around. I have to say that I was a little unhappy about the lack of close-up or macro capabilities... The closest focusing range of the 14-45mm is about 26cm, and 150cm for the 40-150. I've been thinking about buying a good macro lens, but didn't have the budget for it. This week I bought the Olympus EX-25 extension tube for 140 Euro; and I was just totally amazed. I can now focus in as close as 1cm with the 14-45, and 2cm with the 40-150... just awesome. It does require manual focusing on these lenses, which makes it not quite as handy as a genuine auto-focus macro lens, but I'm already more than happy with it... and if I ever decide to buy a macro lens, I can still use the extension tube with it to get even greater magnification. The Olympus Zuiko Digital lenses (about 17-19 lenses in their gamma) rank amongst the very best... but they can be quite expensive. Sigma, another lens manufacturer, already has 11 lenses for the Olympus E-system cameras; Leica/Panasonic has a couple... hopefully many more will follow. The accompanying example is shot with the 40-150mm at 65mm, f4.0, at 1/250s. No postworking (except resizing). You can see some more examples in my gallery; the last two were shot with the EX-25 extension tube. Good luck with the choosing..! ;o))

We do not see things as they are. ǝɹɐ ǝʍ sɐ sƃuıɥʇ ǝǝs ǝʍ