Olympus PEN ‘Lite’ E-PL3
(Compact interchangeable lens camera)
Olympus’ second PEN camera for today is the PEN ‘Lite’ E-PL3, which is a follow-up to last year’s E-PL2. The camera takes a small step back by losing the built-in popup flash (though Olympus does include an external one with the camera) but gains in other areas by adding a tiltable display and having an extremely similar feature set as the higher-end E-P3, although it does have fewer external controls than the E-P3.
- 12 megapixel Live MOS sensor; new 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 stabilization
- New dual-core TruePic VI image processor
- 3 inch LCD (460k pixels); display is mounted on a hinge so you can tilt it up/down for weird-angle shots
- iAuto, Live Guide and built-in help menus for beginners
- Full manual controls with RAW mode
- Hotshoe with accessory port for external microphone, wired remote and Bluetooth transmitter
- New 35 point autofocus system boasting “world’s fastest autofocus”
- 6 Art Filter effects
- ISO range: ISO 200 to 12800
- 4 frames per second continuous shooting mode (up to 5.5 FPS with image stabilizer disabled)
- 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 at 30 FPS) movie mode with stereo sound and continuous autofocus
- Takes SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Availability and price to be announced
- Comes in your choice of black, silver, red or white