Last week, it was Canon and Nikon. Now it's the turn of Olympus to release a slew of new cameras. The company has announced four compacts in its value-oriented FE range, four in the elegant Olympus mju series and a prosumer superzoom compact.
Ranging from £100 to £200, the four models in the FE series are suggested to offer a lot for not a lot. The £100 FE-270 offers 7.1 megapixel resolution with a 3x optical zoom (that's a 35mm equivalent to 38-114mm) and 15 scene modes.
Its bigger brother - the £140 FE-280 - ups the resolution count to 8 megapixels, comes with face detection, the new TruePic III image processing and red, black or blue livery.
The 7.1 megapixel £170 FE-290 - in silver or black - has a larger 3” LCD panel and a lens with the 35mm equivalent of 28-112mm that can focus as close as a claimed 5cm in macro mode.
The new top of the FE series is the £200 FE-300, a 12 megapixel model sensitivity up to ISO1600 in standard resolution and a pixel-binned ISO6400 option. Olympus has gone for total simplicity with one-button, one-feature ergonomics across the whole FE range.
The new mju 820 is a 8 megapixel 'waterproof' camera with a 5x optical zoom (equivalent to 36-180mm on a 35mm camera). Available in five colours, the £180 mju 820 sports a 2.7” LCD screen and face detection. The £250 mju 830 adds dual image stabilisation to the mju 820's spec sheet, while the mju 1200 takes the same mju 820 chassis and introduces a 12 megapixel sensor for £270. The stylish mju range now includes a third 'shockproof' and 'waterproof' camera - the 7.1 megapixel, face detecting mju 790 SW, priced at £200. Just how shockproof and waterproof… wait and see!
With a whopping 18x zoom equivalent to a 27-486mm zoom on a 35mm camera, face detection, dual image stabilisation (that's mechanical image stabilisation and a high ISO boost) and up to 15fps shooting (albeit at 1.2 megapixel mode), the 8 megapixel SP-560 UZ is the superzoom to beat at the £350 price tag. It even has an optional teleconverter that means the lens is equivalent to a mighty 826mm optically (or even up to 4,626mm if you include the digital zoom). All these cameras will be available from October 2007 at the latest.
The announcement that many Olympians are pacing up and down for - the long-awaited pro-grade replacement to the E-1 DSLR - has yet to materialise, however. Shouldn't be long now, though...
