Autofocus
Olympus has great things to say about its current autofocus system. For way too long, the EVOLT cameras sported a mere three AF sensors, and were both slow and low-light impaired. With the advent of the E-3, Olympus's DSLRs upgraded, and the company claimed that the E-3, paired with some of the company's latest lenses, had the fastest autofocus available. We're not testing that assertion in this review, but the E-30's autofocus is good.

The Olympus E-30 has 11 autofocus points, two more than the Canon 50D. The E-30's spots are a bit better placed than the 50D's – we found our subjects falling under the E-30's sensors, while we frequently focused and recomposed when using the 50D. This is a particularly subjective point. It depends on the shooter's choices for composition, and even in focus point. When we shoot portraits, for instance, we focus on the subject's eye nearest the camera.

In typical room light, the E-30's autofocus feels a bit faster than the 50D. The difference could be the lenses we tested with – Olympus sent us the very appealing 14-54mm, f/2.8-3.5 zoom, while the 50D was saddled with the rudimentary 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. Besides the gloomy maximum aperture range, the Canon lens has flimsy mechanics. The front optic group, and therefore the image, rocks left, right, up and down as one turns the manual focus ring. Serious users ought to buy the 50D with an L series lens. Given the difference in aperture of the lenses we had for our review, we can't confidently compare the 50D and E-30 low light autofocus performance.

Manual Focus
We had an easier time manually focusing the Canon 50D. Even though the lens supplied with the Canon is a stop slower than the Olympus's lens, the image snapped much more easily. Canon has done a lot of research on finder screens, and the 50D has apparently benefited. Olympus's 4/3 sensor format is part of the problem: the viewfinders on DSLRs magnify a real image from the taking lens, and the E-30's image is two-thirds the size of the 50D's, requiring more magnification.