13. Evolt E-500

This camera is likely to be discontinued when the e-410 and e-510 see the light of day. As the specs show, this Olympus is not really up-to-date for the entry level DSLR market.

Evolt E330

I expect the E-330 will also be withdrawn from the market with the arrival of the E-410 and E-510. The camera’s specs are pretty close to the E-410.

Pentax

Pentax cameras have a special place in my heart. My first SLR camera (film) was a Pentax K1000. These cameras were used in high school and college photography classes. They were cheap and so were the lenses. They also seemed to last forever. Though I don’t have my original K1000, somewhere in the garage is a later model film SLR and two Pentax lenses I bought for it. If it weren’t for my obsession with Canon and fixation on Nikon, I’d probably pick up one of the Pentax DSLRs to use with those two lenses.

Pentax makes three DSLRs. All of these retail for under $1000.

For the record the Pentax *ist D DSLRs, while still available in stores are no longer featured on the Pentax website, indicating that these models are being phased out.