I made the jump from cheapo-pocketable point-and-shoots to the PM1 and kind of have the photo bug now. Wondering if having say an Oly E-3 would in any way help develop my skills? I can see a practical benefit from having some additional lenses available then for my PEN then... Thoughts?

Keep in mind e3 lenses won't work on a pm1 with out an adapter and won't quite focus as fast. The pm1 lenses won't work on the e3 at all.

In terms of a dslr. My opinion is no. As a matter of fact, most no photo geeks people probablly wouldn't know the difference between a mirrorless and dslr if you compare a panasonic g or gh camera to a sony slt to a nikon dslr.

Having said that, cameras are always fun to play with, I suggest something cheaper than the e3, like a e420 or e410, they're still dslrs in every sense of the word.

What are you wanting out of the E3 that your PM1 doesn't give you? Does it come in any other m43 bodies, or accessories?

Do you have a friend with a DSLR? Maybe they will let you borrow it for a weekend. It's a good way to get a feel before you make a purchase.

A friend let me borrow his Pentax K7. I really enjoyed shooting with it, but also realized it was more camera than I wanted to carry. I had been seriously thinking of just buying a DSLR before.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/atombrown/

No. Only you can develop your skills.

If you really want to get good, you should get an old, fully manual film camera. Then you learn what exposure is, economy of shooting, zone focus, hyperfocal distance, framing, etc.

If you want better pictures, get a better camera.

If you want to be a better photographer, get an Exakta.

IMO.

P.

Buy an old sharp 50mm lens from an SLR (Pentax, Olympus OM, konica etc), buy the cheap adapter for it, mount that on your m4/3rds camera and HONE AWAY.

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Oly e-P1&17mmF2.8 e-600, e-410&40-150MkI, E-1&14-54MkI, Tokyo-Koki 300mm
Lumix G1&Yashinon45F1.7, e-pL1&CZJ135F3.5, e-P2&45mm. e-pL2&30mmF2.8

I had a Canon 30D, now I have an E-PL5. Aside from the obvious physical differences, there is no difference at all in taking photos. In fact, I've been using non-native manual primes a lot more, which involves a lot more thinking and working than putting the camera in A mode. I'd got lazy with the Canon.

Thanks for all the input. I do have access to an old Agfa (1960's) w/ several lenses that I completely forgot about... Film it is.

Nope. Getting something (DSLR, Mirrorless, Fixed lens, whatever) with a single prime lens you're comfortable with, and reasonably fast so you can shoot in a variety of lighting conditions, will probably do a lot for anyone who's reasonably new to photography. Getting comfortable with a single focal length and field of view will help you learn to see - to pre-visualize what will be in the frame and focus more on composition rather than "taking a picture OF something". And if you play around with aperture priority, manual, and maybe shutter priority, you'll learn the tradeoffs among the different exposure controls as well. Don't use auto-ISO for a while either.

That kind of EXPERIENCE will hone your photographic skills and, more importantly, your EYE. The particular type of camera doesn't really matter. Once you get further into it, you may decide that one type of camera or another with a specific set of strengths and weaknesses (because they ALL have tradeoffs) will be better suited to the direction you're going with your photography, but to just hone your skills and figure out what you're doing, I wouldn't worry about it. Use what you've got and learn to take control of it.

-Ray

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Olympus OMD EM5 with several lenses, Fuji X-Pro with three lenses, Ricoh GXR with one lens/sensor unit, Panasonic LX7...

Eh, using film just means it will take a lot longer to see where you went wrong. You don't *have* to "chimp" with a digital but you can still review in batches as you go through the day. Even with a basic kit camera you have everything you need. Put it in manual mode, turn off the AF if you want to, and keep the zoom at the shortest focal length.