Camera Labs

(Sorry for the wall of text.)

Hello all,

I am interested in buying a DSLR camera with portraits, biking, and nature in mind. I had my heart set with Olympus' Evolt 510. I really like how it looks and it seems to have decent expandability when it comes to lenses. I know this camera will cover my needs in portrait and nature by reading tons of reviews. The only drawback I can see with it failing in those two areas is me and perhaps the camera's 3 point AF system.

My biggest worry is if another camera (like the Canon 400D / XTi) will perform better in biking (meaning, amateur bike races) and still give me the Olympus 510's quality of nature and portraits. Perhaps I am confused or my eyes are off but I think the Evolt 510 has very nice colors compared to the competition.

The Nikon D80 is a little much for me although if it does the best in the three selected I may look into it more. The Nikon D40x has crossed my mind, yet I would like some more features in a camera.

And finally, is it even possible to achieve those three goals with one camera? I keep reading in every review out there that testing a camera and how well it fits your hands is the single, most important thing you can do. I keep reading that it is 100% that the photographer makes good pictures, not the camera. If this is true, (which it seems to be) am I looking into this with too much detail?

Thank you very much for your time,
Canner

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Newbie

Hello Canner, and welcome to the Camera Labs forum!
Yes, you're right: The single most important factor in a good photo is the eye behind the camera. So take everything else with a grain of salt!
As to your love of colors of the E510: That's the easiest part to be tweaked with post-processing or in-camera optimization. So this should NOT be your decisive factor.
From the tasks you mentioned biking is perhaps the most ambitious and demanding. You should look for a camera that is fast in all respects: shutter release, focussing, ISO-sensitivity. At least in the last category the Oly is not the best, as the small sensor reduces sensitivity by about 1EV. So perhaps you should begin to look elsewhere esp. in the APS-C-category of cameras...
And as to action in general: it is good to have a very flexible zoom at hand e.g. a 18-200mm super-zoom, like from Nikon (the best) or Tamron/Sigma...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses