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All posts tagged "Olympus"


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Olympus & Panasonic Announce Micro Four Thirds System

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home News" @ 04:05 PM

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/0...ofourthirds.asp

"Olympus and Panasonic have announced a new, mirrorless format / lens mount based on (and compatible with) Four Thirds. The Micro Four Thirds system uses the same sensor size (18 x 13.5 mm) but allows slimmer cameras by removing the mirror box and optical viewfinder. The new format has three key technical differences: (1) roughly half the flange back distance (distance from mount to the sensor), (2) a smaller diameter lens mount (6 mm smaller) and (3) two additional contact points for lens-to-body communication (now 11 points). Removing the mirror mechanism allows this shorter flange back distance, meaning lenses for the new mount can be considerably smaller than current Four Thirds designs. The format will require framing to be carried out using Live View on either the LCD monitor or an EVF. Existing Four Thirds lenses can be used on Micro Four Thirds cameras using an adapter."

If I understand this all correctly, what this means is that we're going to see cameras from Olympus and Panasonic that will be real DSLRs insofar as they have removable lenses, but they'll be potentially quite a bit thinner. So take something like the Sigma DP1 and improve it by making it lens-swappable. Sounds pretty tempting doesn't it? A camera that's almost as small as a point and shoot, but with the high-quality sensor of a much bigger camera is quite appealing. I've found in my tests with the Nikon D60 that the camera can rapidly become awkward to use when you take a small-body camera and put a big lens on it, but a small prime of even a pancake lens would fit nicely and allow for a small overall package.

The biggest disadvantage seems to be the fact that you lose the optical viewfinder. I've gotten used to not having an optical viewfinder on my small P&S cameras, but on a DSLR? That would be much harder to adapt to, especially when you combine the physical zoom of a big lens with having to stare at the screen - that just screams awkward to me. We'll see how the designs of these micro four-thirds cameras turn out...


Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Digicam Reviews Olympus EVOLT E-420

Posted by Suhit Gupta in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 07:00 AM

http://www.digicamreview.com/olympu...dslr_review.htm

"Announced on the 5th of March 2008, the Olympus EVOLT E-420 is Olympus' latest compact 10 megapixel Digital SLR - an update to the E-410 - it features a new live view auto focus mode, face detection focus, a new 2.7" screen, and is the world's most compact Digital SLR, especially when used with the new f2.8 25mm pancake lens. The Olympus EVOLT E-420 is available for £404 with kit lens (as tested here), £485 with twin kit lens, or £500 with 25mm/50mm pancake lens, which makes it great value for money. The camera measures approx. 129.5 x 91 x 53 mm (excluding protrusions), and weighs 380 g (body only)."

The Olympus EVOLT E-420 is available for £404 with kit lens, £485 with twin kit lens, or £500 with 25mm/50mm pancake lens, this makes it very competitively priced compared to the competition, especially as the Olympus E-420 feels like a fully featured Digital SLR. However, the article claims that if you want to move into the world of Digital SLRs and don't know where to start then the Olympus EVOLT E-420 is probably one of the best cameras to choose, and I somewhat disagree. I don't see anything in tis camera that would make me want to recommend it to someone over the Canon XSi, or even the 40D, or the Nikon D40x or D60. And I say this because of the fact that if you are new and don't quite know what to get then getting something that is more widely used with a potentially larger support base is what I would gravitate to. Beginners would have access to more articles and more accessories. Of course, this makes things harder for a company like Olympus to make a dent in the budget camera market but that's how things are IMHO.

Tags: DSLR, Olympus

Monday, May 12, 2008

Olympus Mju Stylus 1030SW Review - It is Waterproof!

Posted by Suhit Gupta in "Digital Home Articles & Resources" @ 08:00 AM

http://www.digicamreview.com/olympu...30sw_review.htm

"Announced on the 22nd of January 2008, the Olympus Mju Stylus 1030SW is Olympus' latest ultra compact "tough" digital camera - it's designed to withstand the elements, and is waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, crushproof, dustproof, scratchproof, and therefore also childproof! The camera features a 10 megapixel sensor, a wide angle 3.6x optical zoom lens, a 2.7" screen that works in the sun, and a VGA video mode. The Olympus Mju 1030SW is available from around £215 which makes it great value for money. The camera is enclosed in an extremely tough metal body and is available in black, silver, or green. The camera measures approx. 93.2 x 61.4 x 21.3 mm (excluding protrusions), and weighs approx. 173g. excluding battery and memory card."

What an excellent idea! My favorite part about this review was reading the following in the specs - Crushproof up to 100kg, Waterproof to 10m, Shockproof up to 2.0m, Freezeproof upto -10 C, Scratchproof, Dust resistant body. Although honestly, it is the waterproof part that caught my eye. Firstly, it doesn't just say water resistant like most watches do, so you can actually go under water with this. Second, since it is waterproof to about 10m, that makes it ideal when going snorkeling. The review also states that the image quality is quite nice so all in all this seems to be a really good camera.

But here is the weird thing - I was going to say that this camera is a little expensive if one plans to use this only as a snorkeling companion when I saw the price quoted in the review (GBP215) but when I started looking on pricegrabber and Windows Live Product Search (in order to see what the cheapest price I could find for it was), all I could find was a $189 underwater housing for this camera. So the waterproofness fo the camera is suddenly a little suspect to me. I guess the housing is simply to increase the depth to which one can take the camera.

Of course, Olympus' site (UK site here) certainly shows this to be a legitimate camera with the right set of features and accessories so this just may be an issue of the camera not having made it out to most online retail stores yet. Estimated retail in the US is $399.

Tags: Olympus

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