Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips
The recently-announced Olympus E-PM1 has been officially priced at $499 and will include a 14-42mm kit lens.
As a refresher, the E-PM1 is the smallest of the PEN series cameras. It features a 12.3MP Micro Four Thirds image sensor, 1080i HD video capture and a sensitivity range up to ISO 12800.
The E-PM1 should start shipping in September.
Above is a short video that Nick and I shot using a pair of Olympus E-P3 cameras. Nothing fancy in terms of lenses, filters, matte box or follow focus. We just wanted to see what kind of footage we could get out of them straight out of the box. [Read more…]
The Olympus E-P3 is the third model in the flagship Micro Four Thirds lineup known as PEN cameras, which got started with the E-P1. I’ve been using the Olympus E-P3 for a couple of days now and wanted to give you some of my initial thoughts on the new camera and why it’s the best PEN yet. [Read more…]
The newly announced Olympus E-P3 is available for pre-order at B&H, which usually means (at B&H anyway) that it will be in stock and ready to ship soon.
You can also get in the pre-order line for the E-P3 at Amazon and Adorama.
Olympus has opened up its Micro Four Thirds line of cameras to three new cameras. The Olympus E-PM1, E-PL3 and E-P3 (shown above) essentially make up the small, medium and large categories for the series. Of course, “large” is a relative term with respect to the Olympus Micro Four Thirds line as a whole.
The Olympus E-PM1, E-PL3 and E-P3 are expected to be launched later this week. So, it makes sense that we are seeing a teaser campaign from Olympus, which is (right now) just a short video of a cloth draped over a camera. The corner of the fabric lifts up, revealing a tiny portion of what has to be a new PEN camera, and then the video cuts off.
Of course, images the E-PM1 have already been leaked – and it is tiny. [Read more…]
Olympus has been rolling out the results of its 48 hour short film contest, which was part of the 2011 Vail Film Festival. “During the contest, 19 teams of filmmakers from around the country were challenged to create a film, from start to finish, in a 48-hour timeframe with the powerfully simple Olympus PEN camera and a variety of lenses and accessories.” Olympus is using this opportunity to pimp its HD-shooting PEN cameras, like the new Olympus E-PL2.
This week, Olympus revealed the runner-up short film, Der Bürgermeister. You can check it out, along with some commentary from the filmmakers, below. [Read more…]
Olympus Japan has announced a new E-PL1s Micro Four Thirds camera as a slight tweak to the popular E-PL1. The E-PL1s adds an ISO 6400 sensitivity setting and now comes in a red body.
Along with the E-PL1s, Olympus announced a new 14-42mm II f/3.5-5.6 kit lens with improved internal focusing for faster and quieter AF.
[Olympus Japan via Photo Rumors]
Not that this should really surprise anyone, but Olympus seems to have gone on record to confirm that the company is no longer interested in developing entry-level DSLRs in light of its successful PEN series, which are based on the Micro Four Thirds system.
“We do not have concrete plans to replace the E-620 and other recent SLRs. The entry level SLR class can be completely replaced by the Pen system in terms of performance.” -Toshiyuki Terada, Product manager of SLR Olympus Planning Department
Terada went on to say that Olympus plans on developing an advanced-PEN camera and, at some point, Olympus expects to phase out DSLRs entirely in favor of the mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras.
[via Photo Rumors]
Olympus has made available firmware updates for the E-P1, E-P2 and E-PL1 PEN Series cameras. The new firmware updates are designed to improve the auto focus performance for still and video capture in the PEN cameras. [Read more…]