They don't invite me to meetings at Canon and Nikon. If, however, I was to become a fly on-the-wall, I'd probably hear them worrying about a trend in DSLR cameras that trumps their historic advantage.

A little background first.

DSLR camera users love their telephoto zoom lenses. They're cheaper and more versatile than the slightly sharper, non-zoom, 'prime' lenses professionals prefer. They're also slower; which means less light passes through the camera.

To compensate, photographers have to slow their camera's shutter, which makes it blur pictures.

Nikon and Canon, the legacy leaders in this field, make lenses with image stabilization, allowing you to slow down the shutter speeds with impunity. Unfortunately, since the stabilization is on the lens, you pay for it with each lens you buy.

This is why the current trend is in-camera image stabilization, available from companies like Olympus. Since the stabilization is off the lens, you only pay for it once. That makes individual lenses cheaper and simpler.

Now, Olympus is stepping it up another notch with their new 10.1 Megapixel E-520 DSLR. There are three in-camera stabilization modes.

The first is your plain vanilla 'hold me steady' mode. The other two allow the camera to pan when held vertically or horizontally and stay blur free, which will help you track a speeding race car or a basketball player's slam dunk.

The artistic effects of panning enhance the shot and render the player in sharp detail with a blurred background.

At $600 for the body and $700 with a 'walk around kit lens,' this Olympus might attract some users who are looking beyond the simple cost of entry.

Posted by: Geoff Fox