DSLR

I am thinking of buying a DSLR. i have narrowed my choice between pentax *ist and oylmpus e300. which one is better? or should i go in for something like the D70s or canon EOS350d? Please advice

The answer probably depends on whether you want to shoot film also.

If you think you'd like to have a film SLR as a backup, or for situations that digital doesn't handle as well, then definitely go with the Pentax. The lenses for the *ist film and digital cameras are interchangeable.

Lenses for the Olympus will NOT work on any film camera. Olympus decided to use a sensor built on the "4/3" principle, which means that their sensor, and the images from it, are at a ratio of 4:3, rather than the 3:2 of 35mm images. This means that your 5x7's are actually 5x6.67, your 8x10's will be 8x10.67, etc.

This means you will have to crop to get images that fit well in standard frames.

If you aren't planning to have a film backup, and don't care about the framing, then the thing to do is compare features, and then hold each one to see which is more comfortable and has the buttons and knobs in the "right" places for your hands.

Is there a particular reason you are looking at only these two models? I can reccomend a D70s only because I'm a D70 user. I recently just last week was playing around with a Pentax *istD. It felt like such a hunk of junk in my hand that was going to fall apart. Aside from that it couldn't focus to save its life.

Because of the choice of lenses and large communities of other users who can help you with questions, I would suggest that you consider the Canon and Nikon. The 350 seems like a great camera choice right now, though fill flash usage or fit in hand considerations might steer you towards the Nikon or some other choice.

I dont intend to shoot film. I zeroed on olympus because of the unique supersonic wave lens cleaner and higher mega pixels for the same cost of D70s.
So are you guys suggesting that I consider the D70 or the EOS 350?

I think you'll find the general concenscious around here will be yes, go for the D70 or EOS350... ;)