I want value, not salesmanship Is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 possibly the best value for my dollar?

It's the classic conundrum in high tech: if I wait, something better will come along.  It's always that way, always has been, always will be. However, if you wait, you aren't using it. And what you're waiting for may not be important to you.

The EM5 is a pretty good deal, considering what you're getting. You're getting a weathersealed midrange dslr, that's quite a bit smaller, lighter, and slightly less expensive than what the other companies offer. Photos of it really don't show this. When I first pulled my EM5 out of the box, my initial impression was - wow, this is small.

The image quality is quite good. For personal use, anything over 16mp is overkill. Arguably, 16mp is overkill, but as long as you have it, may as well use it. Same with the low light capability - with the EM5, it's very good. You can get better, but would you use it, and would you be willing to pay more for it, and get a camera that is substantially larger and heavier?

It's important to consider that the improvements you're waiting for may not matter to you.

The one shortcoming of the EM5, and M43 cameras in general, is the cost of the lenses. They're still a bit high. Not outrageously priced, but a bit high, because it's a new system and there aren't many used lenses on the market.

However, for shooting birds in the back yard, there is a solution for that. It's called the ZD 70-300 lens. It's a long telephoto, built for the larger Olympus 4/3 system, and can be bought on the used market for $200-250. That's about half what the telephoto lenses made for Micro 4/3 cost. You will need an adapter (about $100), but the Olympus ZD 70-300 works very well on the EM5.

So there you have it. Get the EM5 with 12-50 lens, and you have a weathersealed package with a decent (but not fantastic) lens, that also has a close up ability. Add the 4/3 to M4/3 adapter, and the ZD 70-300 lens, and you have birds in the back yard.