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Olympus Updates Master, Shows No Love for E-3

Olympus has updated its Master software to include the new e-Portrait and Art Filter controls in the software. Except you still have to have a camera that could use these in the first place, in a bit of software lockdown all too familiar after their deal with pano-stitching only working on certain xD cards. So, if you don’t own an E-P1 yet, this is a pretty unexciting update. There might be something in it for you E-P1, E-30,E-620, and E-450 owners, though.

To get the update, make sure you have Master installed (it comes with all Olympus cameras), then make sure you’re connected to the internet, go to Help-> Update Software and follow the instructions.



Olympus EP-1 Official, Cuter Than Baby Seals

So, the internet rumormill ground out some mighty fine bread and I walked in today to be bombarded with news about Olympus new “digital Pen”, the Micro Four-Thirds “EP-1″ camera. Available in Jody-pleasing black or Derek’s-girlfriend-pleasing brown trim, it’s not so much bigger than the Panasonic TZ series cameras, but packs the imager and IS module from the E-620 for a mighty 12 megapixels and up to 4 stops of image stabilization on any lens you want to smack on there.

Pricing is still a hop-and-a-skip from official, so more on that in a bit, but also at announcement we have a 17mm (34mmEFL) f2.8 pancake and a new and even tinier 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 zoom, a hotshoe-mounted VF for the 17mm prime, and a new low-power, slimline flash unit. Which I reckon is enough to call it a system.

Rest assured, one of these will eventually find its way into my bag. Check pictures below, you can peruse the specs here in a bit once I get them up on the site.



Spring Expo 2009: Olympus

More video footage from Expo 2009, this time with our Olympus tech rep who gives usa quick overview of their new E-620, which is kinda like their E-30 shoved into one of the smallest bodies on the market (the E-30, in turn, is like an ecnomic version of my own beloved E-3). And, it has backlit buttons! Buttons! Backliiiiiiiit! It’s genius, why didn’t this exist before? Seriously!

Ah. Ahem. Sorry. Lost my composure there. Video below.



E-620s are Landed

E-620The E-620, Olympus’ newest body, appears to be happily in stock (body only) at our store now. All I have to say is “sweet!” I have yet to play with this, but the gist is you get most of the imaging capability of the E-30, Olympus’ third AF system ever, a tilting swiveling screen with Oly’s newest revision of how Live View should go, and FRIGGIN’ BACKLIT BUTTONS, with in-body IS in something the size of my old AE-1 and which makes one of my Chucks (the shoe, not the sales dude) look like a bowling ball.

While the Olympus digital cameras are in body only, we’re still waiting for the kits with the 14-42, the first of two Olympus camera lenses to prove that 4/3 can be tiny, tiny, tiny. But, they’ll be in sometime, so if you need a kit from scratch it’s worth waiting to check them out.



More on the E-620

I tell ya, you spend half a week catching up the website’s FJ Westcott catalog (we now have around 240 Westcott products, all related to professional studio lighting, on our website. Booyah) and you find that your sales manager beats you to the punch on the exciting new Olympus digital camera.

So it goes, but I’m not about to let that stop me from throwing out a few of the interesting highlights of this product from a standing Oly user:

1. Form factor. Phil stated that it’s similar to a 520, which is true enough, but it’s also a bit smaller yet than that, kinda like a chunky 420, making it one of the smallest DSLRs going still, and the smallest going with in-body image stabilization

2. Addressing user complaints: Olympus has a long reputation of including small bits of pioneering, but the E-620 is also a solid show of addressing standard complaints with the intro E system bodies. It’s got a better viewfinder, bigger, with the info at the bottom and not on the right any more. Plus, they upgraded the old 3 point AF to a 7 point system (5 of which are full-time cross style)

3. Oly innovation. Like that swing swivel LCD that made its appearence on digital cams with the E-3. And, here’s my favorite gimmick I’ve seen on a DSLR since Nikon busted out the virtual level on its D3:

That’s right, backlit buttons. Does it add anything to final image quality? Not a lick. Did everyone in the office go “oh yeah, I’m surprised no one’s done that yet?” You betcha.

What Olympus’ plans for their 4xx and 5xx series cam is I’m not sure yet, and I doubt anyone will know until they finally present their Micro 4/3 offerings, but I gotta say, there were a lot of Oly users waiting for exactly this E-620. Good show.



Olympus announces E-620

Just before the big PMA show in Las Vegas next week, Olympus announced the new E-620 Olympus digital camera.

E-620 side by side

As you can tell from the above photo that I borrowed from dpreview.com, the 620 is about the size of the 520, but shares body styles with the E-30.  The E-620 also shares the swivel LCD monitor, the 12.3MP sensor, Art Filters, Mulitiple Exposure mode, and 4 different aspect ratios, from the E-30.

Olympus will offer an underwater housing for it and a vertical grip as well.

The Olympus E-620 digital SLR will be available in May of 2009.




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