Just bought a Canon EOS 450D with a Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens, and so far I love it....even on auto its a million times better than my old point and shoot

I'm not an expert, but I used it back to back with my uncles Olympus E-410 dual lens kit.

The main differences I've noticed:
- The Canon feels more solid
- The menu's are more intuitive on the Canon.
- The Canon uses SD, which is an advantage for me because I have heaps of them, as opposed to XD card of the Olympus.
- The Olympus is more compact than the Canon and feels a bit nicer to carry around because its not as bulky.
- The Canon locks onto a focus point more readily than the Olympus, when both are in auto mode...in fact sometimes it took me so long to focus lock with the Olympus that it wasn't even worth taking the photo anymore. This seemed more of a problem in low light than anything else. This is very annoying, but I'm sure a setting change would fix this. Again, I'm not a pro so I'm not sure how to do this.
- The Olympus E-410 twin lens kit is a lot cheaper than my Canon 450D enthusiast kit.

So far so good....but of course, my opinion isn't very professional and I'm sure others have different opinions.