And finally, it’s Olympus’ turn to update their cameras for 2010, and oh my, what big steps they’ve taken this year to bring their cameras up to speed with the crowd. I remember I was ranting about the lack of HD video recording on the Stylus/Mju cameras last year… well, no more: the new Stylus/Mju cameras today are Olympus’ first cameras (ever) to feature HD movie modes. That’s not all, they also have ports for HDMI output (finally).
Olympus also executed a move that I’ve been speculating would happen sooner or later - they’ve essentially dumped their long-time (but not so widely adopted) proprietary xD-Picture card format for the more conventional, widely-used SD/SDHC memory cards. Kudos to Olympus! Indeed, this move by Olympus (and a similar unanticipated move by Sony earlier today) have certainly made the world a slightly brighter place to live in ;).
Well, Olympus isn’t turning their backs on old Olympus camera owners just yet (plus they want to court more buyers) as they’ve included a whopping 1 to 2 GB of built-in memory (versus the paltry 20-50 MB of other cameras) into their new Stylus/Mju cameras today. Again, another thumbs up to Olympus, they really seem to be getting their act together this year. Now, I just hope that they’ve improved performance and image quality of these new cameras as well - I’ll have to see once I manage to get my hands on them!
Olympus Stylus AKA Mju 5010
(Compact camera)
- 14 effective megapixels
- 26 – 130 mm (f2.8 – f6.5) 5X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
- No manual controls
- Magic Filters, AF tracking and Intelligent Auto features
- HDMI output port
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with sound
- Takes SD/SDHC cards; 1 GB internal memory
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $200
- Comes in your choice of silver, blue or pink
Olympus Stylus/Mju 7030 and Stylus/Mju 7040
(Compact camera)
- 14 effective megapixels
- 28 – 196 mm (f3.0 – f5.9) 7X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- Stylus/Mju 7030: 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
Stylus/Mju 7040: 3.0 inch LCD (230,000 pixels) - No manual controls
- Magic Filters, AF tracking and Intelligent Auto features
- Stylus/Mju 7040 only: HDMI output port
- Stylus/Mju 7030: VGA (640 x 480) 30 FPS movie mode with sound
Stylus/Mju 7040: 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with sound - Takes SD/SDHC cards
Stylus/Mju 7030 has 1 GB internal memory
Stylus/Mju 7040 has 2 GB internal memory - Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $200 (Stylus/Mju 7030) and $250 (Stylus/Mju 7040)
- Stylus/Mju 7030: Comes in your choice of silver, blue or purple
Stylus/Mju 7040: Comes in your choice of silver, blue or pink
Olympus Stylus AKA Mju 3000
(Rugged camera)
- 12 effective megapixels
- 28 – 102 mm (f3.5 – f5.1) 3.6X optical zoom lens
- Sensor-shift image stabilization
- 2.7 inch LCD (230,000 pixels)
- Waterproof (10 feet/3 meters), shockproof (5 feet/1.5 meters), freezeproof
- No manual controls
- Tap Conrol allows you to adjust settings by tapping the camera’s sides
- Magic Filters, AF tracking and Intelligent Auto features
- HDMI output port
- 720p HD (1280 x 720) 30 FPS movie mode with sound
- Takes SD/SDHC cards; 1 GB internal memory
- Uses a lithium-ion battery
- Available in February for $230
- Comes in your choice of red, green, blue or pink
Olympus is also making four new entry-level FE-series models available.