Olympus does something very well, it gives you home run for your money. You can get a body that costs $600 and add the suburb 14-54mm (28-104mm equiv.) for $350 + the very good 70-300mm (140-600mm equiv.) for another $350 and you are set for many years to come. With Canon and Nikon yes you can spend around the same amount of money on a body of the same class as olympus but to make a good use of their great sensors you must spend an avrg. $1000 on each lens that gives only very limited focal range. It seems to me that Nikon and especially Canon make more camera bodies in order to make even more money selling lenses for them.