I love this story for some circumstances are similar to mine. I too started with the E-500 somewhere in 2006-2007 (just before the 510 came out) and I shot with it for quite some time. It wasn't until about 2 years ago before I upgraded to my current Nikon 5200. My grandson, had always been interested in taking photos but he was much too young to hold a DSLR so for the most part, I loaned him a couple of my point-n-shoots and he had an eye to picking up some of the shots that intrigued me. Now that's he's just turned 10, I've started to loan him the E-500 and the first round of shooting was this past weekend at the zoo. Granted only 10-15% of his shots came out sharp, he still managed to pull out some great shots and he was very pleased with himself...and I for him :)