Was the E-P2 PEN a bit too heavy on your wallet? Good news, Olympus just announced an affordable offering in their line of PEN interchangeable lens cameras. The PEN E-PL1 (what a mouthful) takes most of the E-P2′s features and puts them in a mostly plastic body, throws in a couple of new features like Live Guide to make the camera more beginner friendly and a built-in popup flash.
I will have a preview of the camera ready and online very soon.
Olympus E-PL1 PEN camera
(Micro Four Thirds camera)
- 12 megapixel Live MOS sensor (Micro Four Thirds, 2.0X crop factor)
- Micro Four Thirds lens mount (adapters available for normal Four Thirds and Leica lenses)
- Sensor-shift image stabilizer
- Dust reduction
- 2.7 inch LCD
- Optional electronic viewfinder attaches via hotshoe
- Six Art Filters (photo effects)
- On-board flash
- Live Guide feature for simplified manual control adjustment for beginners
- ISO range of 100 – 3200
- Full manual controls with RAW mode and flash hotshoe
- 3 FPS burst mode
- 720p (1280 x 720 at 30 FPS) movie mode with sound
Optional external microphone accessory; attaches via hotshoe
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in March for $600 (with 14-42 mm kit lens)
Olympus also announced two new Micro Four Thirds lenses today: the 9 – 18 mm f4.0 – f5.6 ultra-wide angle zoom lens to be available in May for $700 and the new 14 – 150 mm f4.0 – f5.6 all-in-one super zoom lens, which will go for $600 in June.
Olympus made a second round of camera announcements for 2010 today, bringing out their new line of Ultra Zoom series cameras and rugged Stylus Tough cameras.
In terms of zoom, Olympus’ UZ series (Ultra-zoom) live right up to their name, one of which features a 15X optical zoom lens, while the other has a whopping 30X optical zoom in a single lens. Yes, you heard that right, THIRTY times optical zoom (I wonder how anyone can handhold that and take a sharp photo for anything but landscapes on a sunny day). The two new UZ cameras take several small steps forward with plenty of internal memory, 720p HD movie mode, plenty of bells and whistles, and how could we forget, that huge 30X lens… but they also take a big step backward in terms of control – both of today’s newly announced cameras lack any sort of manual exposure controls (unlike their predecessors and forefathers). Plus they also lack electronic viewfinders (presumably to reduce size, not that either camera is pocketable)
Next up are two rugged cameras. Olympus, the pioneer of rugged digital cameras (I think their first one came out in 2005/2006), has always been at the front if ‘super heavy duty’, ultra-rugged cameras are what you want. These two new Tough series cameras sport decent improvements, including a brand new 5X optical zoom lens and 720p HD movie mode. Let’s see if their image quality can live up to their features.
Previews of Olympus’ new ultra-zoom and rugged cameras to come!
Olympus SP600 UZ and SP800 UZ
(Ultra-zoom cameras)
- SP600 UZ: 12 effective megapixels
SP800 UZ: 14 effective megapixels
- SP600 UZ: 28 – 420 mm (f3.5 – f5.4) 15X optical zoom lens
SP800 UZ: 28 – 840 mm (f2.8 – f5.6) 30X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- SP600 UZ: 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
SP800 UZ: 3.0 inch LCD (230,000 pixels) widescreen
Neither camera has an electronic viewfinder (EVF)
- No manual controls (huh?! why?!)
- Magic Filters, AF tracking and Intelligent Auto features
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with sound
- Takes SD/SDHC cards
SP600 UZ has 1 GB internal memory
SP800 UZ has 2 GB internal memory
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in March for $250 (SP600 UZ) and $350 (SP800 UZ)
Olympus Stylus/Mju TOUGH 6020 and Stylus/Mju TOUGH 8010
(Rugged compact cameras)
- 14 effective megapixels
- 28 – 140 mm (f3.9 – f5.9) 5X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Built-in LED lamp to illuminate photos and videos
- Tap Control allows you to adjust settings by tapping the camera’s sides
- Magic Filters, AF tracking and Intelligent Auto features
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with sound
- Takes SD/SDHC cards
Stylus/Mju Tough 6020 has 1 GB internal memory
Stylus/Mju Tough 8010 has 2 GB internal memory
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $300 (Stylus/Mju Tough 6020) and $400 (Stylus/Mju Tough 8010)
- Stylus Tough 6020: Waterproof (16 feet/5.5 meters), shockproof (5 feet/1.5 meters), dustproof, freezeproof (14 F/0 C)
Stylus Tough 8010: Waterproof (33 feet/11 meters), shockproof (6.6 feet/2.0 meters), dustproof, freezeproof (14 F/0 C), crushproof (220 lbs/100 kg)
Nikon just announced a bunch of new Coolpix digital cameras earlier today. They’ve got something for almost everyone, and seem to be pushing aggressively into the ultra-zoom and compact super-zoom camera markets with pretty solid offerings. They’ve also [fianlly] included 720p and 1080p HD movie modes in most of today’s newly announced cameras. We’ll see how they perform in real life once they become available…
Nikon Coolpix P100
(Ultra-zoom camera)
- 10 effective megapixels (backlit CMOS)
- 26 – 678 mm (f2.8 – f5.0) 26X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- 3.0 inch LCD (460,000 pixels) with EVF
- Full manual controls
- Continuous shooting up to 10 frames per second at full resolution
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- Camera HDR combines several pictures into one HDR photo
- Night Landscape combines several pictures into one low-noise photo
- Full HD (1920 x 1080) 30 FPS movie mode with stereo sound and optical zoom
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in March for $400
Nikon Coolpix S8000
(Compact super-zoom)
- 14 effective megapixels
- 30 – 300 mm (f3.5 – f5.6) 10X optical zoom lens
- Optical image stabilization
- 3.0 inch LCD (921,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- Creative Slider allows quick and easy adjustment of image brightness, saturation and tone
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with stereo sound
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $300
- Comes in your choice of silver, black, red or brown
Nikon Coolpix L110
(Compact super-zoom)
- 12 effective megapixels
- 28 – 420 mm (f3.5 – f5.4) 15X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- 3.0 inch LCD (460,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with stereo sound and optical zoom
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses 4 AA batteries
- Available in February for $280
- Comes in your choice of black or red
Nikon Coolpix S6000
(Compact super-zoom)
- 14 effective megapixels
- 28 – 196 mm (f3.7 – f5.6) 7X optical zoom lens
- Optical image stabilization
- 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with stereo sound
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $250
- Comes in your choice of silver, black, red or brown
Nikon Coolpix S3000/S4000
(Compact cameras)
- 12 effective megapixels
- 27 – 108 mm (f3.2 – f5.9) 4X optical zoom lens
- NO image stabilization
- S3000: 2.7 inch non-touch LCD (230,000 pixels)
S4000: 3.0 inch touchscreen (460,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- S3000: VGA (640 x 480) 30 FPS movie mode with mono sound
S4000: 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with mono sound
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in March for $150 (S3000) and $200 (S4000)
- S3000: Comes in your choice of silver, black, purple, red or pink
S4000: Comes in your choice of silver, black, purple, blue, orange or green
Nikon Coolpix L22
(Entry-level camera)
- 12 effective megapixels
- 37 – 134 mm (f3.1 – f6.7) 3.6X optical zoom lens
- NO image stabilization
- 3.0 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Smart Potrait: Face, smile and blink detection, software redeye removal, skin softening
- VGA (640 x 480) 30 FPS movie mode with mono sound
- Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
- Uses 2 AA batteries
- Available in March for $130
- Comes in your choice of black, silver, red or blue
