i do agree picture quality on the N900 is not great. I live in a very sunny place and where I have seen problems are in:

1. sun in front of you - gives the pictures a washout
2. closeups with flash are REALLY bad and colors are really washed out. Disabling flash helps a lot - but then you are limited to okay lit areas.

But which idiot surrounds the sensor with a mirror?

/Kaz
Nikon D3/D700 :-)
Fujii FD31 (for scuba)