I have no regrets buying into Olympus. Takes great pics even on all auto mode. Take those reviews with a grain of salt. Most are nit picked by professionals which I'm not. Like I said, all dslr's will take great pics. They are only limited by the photographer.
The D70s will have the same dust problems. It is basically the same camera as the D70 with a couple more goodies added.
When comparing len's you must compare apples with apples. The $400 Canon is their bottom end so to speak. The Canon len's that would be comparable to $600 Oly would be over $1000. There are only a couple of L class len's that are just under a grand. Remember that all Oly's are digital but not too many Canons or Nikkor's can say the same. The only thing about Oly's kit lens is they are slow. I would like F2 and faster but fast len's cost big doesn't matter who makes them.
Personally I think the best "hobby" Dslr is the Canon 20D, but I would have to spend 3 to 4 thousand to get what I want in len's etc. More for a Nikon system. According to the forums on DPreview and others, many people have jumped camp to Oly. Damn dust anyways
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I have a couple of pics in the gallery taken with the Oly. All taken on auto as I'm still learning. The pics are unprocessed right from the camera. The color of the Crocea ultra are right on.