Some DSLR manufacturers have a camera or two that hit a sweet spot with performance and price: the cameras have high pixel counts, good image quality and shooting speed, but cost much less than the most expensive DSLRs. The Canon EOS 50D and the Olympus EVOLT E-30 are two such cameras. The 50D shoots 15.1 megapixel images, and the E-30 shoots 12.3. The 50D is supposed to shoot 6.3 frames per second, and the E-30 is rated a comparable 5 fps. The E-30 has 11 autofocus points and the 50D has nine. Both sell for about $1300, body only. The two make it tough for most photographers to justify buying the top cameras in their lines, but each case has its own logic. The 50D costs about 1/6 of what a Canon 1Ds Mark III goes for. The E-30 is not much cheaper than Olympus's flagship E-3 (B&H prices the E-3 at $1395), but the E-30 has higher resolution, and otherwise very comparable specifications.

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