1. Your First DSLR: Interchangeable Lenses or Not?

The $549.99 Olympus E-420 DSLR camera is one of the latest cameras in the Olympus E-System line to use interchangeable lenses. Unlike the average consumer-level point-and-shoot camera, you can remove the lens from the E-420 and replace it with one of several other lenses from Olympus. Olympus offers three different levels of lenses: "Super High Grade," "High Grade" and "Standard"—each with different focal lengths and lens speeds. Our test camera came with the "Standard" Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm, ƒ3.5-5.6 zoom lens, which is equivalent to a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm camera.

It is this interchangeability of lenses that should draw the interest of serious amateur photographers. The vast majority of consumer cameras are equipped with a single, built-in lens. If the camera’s longest telephoto focal-length doesn’t get you close enough to your subject, you’ll have to move closer to the subject. If you can’t get all of that mountain in the shot, you’ll have to hop in the car or on your bike to move a few hundred yards back in order to get the shot. With the E-420, all you need to do is swap out the current lens for the right telephoto or wide-angle lens to get the right shot. That’s the good news. The other side of the coin is that you’ll have to buy each additional lens for the E-420, which range in cost from under $150 to over $5,000 for the Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F2.8 (which is built to order).

The $399.99 Olympus SP-565UZ is also a new DSLR camera; the main difference between the SP-565UZ and the E-420 is that the SP-565UZ’s 20X zoom lens is a permanent fixture of the camera body. While you do not have the flexibility of multiple lenses as you would with the E-420, the SP-565UZ has one of the longest zoom ranges of a consumer-level camera. In fact, the SP-565UZ’s built-in lens can reach out to subjects and bring them in closer than the 14-42mm zoom lens that came with our E-420.