buying a DSLR?

Yeah find a K100D (or super), dont buy the kit lens but buy the 16-50 F/2.8, if thats not too expensive.

the reason i'm reluctant to get a k100d is because of the tiny continuous shot capabilities it has.. i'm going to be using it for sports photography and things like that a fair bit, so it's a tad unsuitable, 4 jpegs and 3 raw images just wouldn't cut it.
other than that, i can't fault it.
don't really want to get a nikon d40 because of the previously mentioned expensive lenses, due to in in-camera motor.
i'm probably going to get the olympus. it's a nice camera, and has good continuous shooting capabilities as well as lens compatability. not to mention higher resolution if i decide to make prints, and a lightweight body for travel (which i do a fair bit of).
thanks for all your help, i learnt a lot from this thread.
haha, i came in thinking number of megapixels drastically reflected final image quality. i feel like a dumbass.

The olympus remember is 4/3 format, so the crop factor is 2X rather than 1.5X

With say, my pentax, a 50mm lens would act like a 75mm lens would on a 35mm camera, however with the olympus it acts like a 100mm lens would on a 35mm camera ;)

Shit 2x crop must be fucking annoying. :S Remember if you will be doing sports you need a tele lens, or else you won't be getting any good shots.

Yeahhh
small sensor too
=/
but if your a wildlife photographer its good, shorter lenses :p
but.. again, few wide angles
infact this arguement is useless since olympus have like 10 lenses ahaha

grarrgh!
you're making the olympus sound rubbish! i really cant decide.
i'll probably with the the pentax now and deal with the crappy continuous shooting.
also, do you guys shoot in RAW, JPEG, or some other file format / combination that i'm unaware of?

I always shoot RAW
always always always

pentax's RAW is PEF, and can be converted with the adobe dng converter to DNG if your version of PS doesnt open it. Same with the canon nikon olympus etc formats.

Always raw.

Some cameras support DNG too rob. And there's always dcraw.

But yeah, always RAW. Even I could tell you that, and I'm not a photographer ;P. Never use a format that throws half your data away, except for the final thing. maybe.

yeah only newer cameras
best is to shoot raw+jpeg for convinience.