new Olympus high-end compact announced

[slowhands]

A few days ago I lamented that Olympus seemed to have dropped the ball since the era of the C5050Z and SP-350 cameras. I was wrong. The XZ1 is a slam dunk.

I listed several features that I would love to see: Manual exposure control, ability to shoot RAW, Fast F1.8 lens like the C5050 and a hotshoe. The XZ1 has all of those in an updated package. Impressive.

Specs on the XZ1 Here:
XZ-1
Preview here:
Olympus XZ-1 announced and previewed: Digital Photography Review

Housing: PT-050 UNDERWATER HOUSING
"The XZ-1’s compact design makes it the perfect companion for all of your dive trips. The PT-050 underwater case has been customized for the XZ-1 and is waterproof to a depth of 40 meters (approximately 130 feet). With its durable, high-quality polycarbonate construction, this Olympus housing protects the camera from water while also cushioning it from knocks and bumps on land." [The housing appears to have a 67mm threaded Port for wet macro and wide adapters. ]

Flash Options: Internal and External
Note that it appears the XZ-1 has a popup flash, as well as a hot shoe for external flash. Compatible external flashes are the usual Olympus flashes: FL-20 etc. That means fiber optic cables are one option, and hardwired TTL may also be provided in aftermarket housings from Ikelite. The HW TTL converter may also work, but there is no hole for it in the Housing.

Expected ship date is Jan 2011, so I hope some hands-on reviews appear soon. This looks like a great answer to the Canon S95 and Panasonic LX5.

 

[Nemrod]

This new camera looks good with great specs and great possibilities for wet lens applications. The new sensor is slightly larger than the G and S series Canons 1/1.63 vs 1/1.7 size. Not a huge difference but slightly larger and that is good and the reduction to only 10MP following Canon's lead with emphasizing real world performance rather than paper specifications also bodes well.

The housing looks great as well, should be a winner, like someone said, why cannot Canon provide housings like this for their cameras instead of the chintzy wet cases they currently sell.

To bad it does not include Inon's new "Type HD" bayonet mount for their new wide angle lens series built in.

N

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

Ikelite announced at DEMA that they are about to introduce a fiber optic conversion cable for their strobes bringing them into the 21st century tech world. It would make sence to me for Ikelite strobe owners to move on from wired strobes with this new offering. With the Olympus XZ-1 EV control and rear curtain sync are done in camera without the extra cost of an extra add-on controller.

Inon has a mount base for every Olympus P&S housing ever made, it should not take them long to adapt to the PT-050 housing.

Phil Rudin

 

[Wisnu]

Just want to say ****!, this is the camera I'm looking for to upgrade from SP-350 - but I just bought E-PL1 w/ 10 bar housing - and worst thing, the camera is not working, very likely manufacturer defect as there's similar problem reported in the net.

 

[davelew]

I wonder what Shutter lag is like on this new camera?

from Digital Camera Resource Page | Unbiased Digital Camera News and Reviews

Autofocus speeds on my preproduction camera was average for this class. Typically, the camera took between 0.2 and 0.4 to lock focus at the wide end of the lens. Telephoto focus times were between 0.5 and 0.9 seconds in most situations. Low light focusing was generally accurate, with focus times hovering at or slightly above the one second mark.

I didn't find shutter lag to be an issue, even at the slower shutter speeds where it sometimes occurs.

Shot-to-shot delays were about two seconds long, regardless of whether you're shooting JPEG or RAW images.

 

[CheddarChick]

Man..here I was sittting around dreaming of the ELp from Oly.......I'm so glad I didn't get it yet...Scotty & Phil keep the info coming...
And some how, some way get your hands on one and take it underwater soon....Mine is all frozen....

 

[Lyndon]

Looking to upgrade my SP-350 rig and couldnt quite decide which way to head and just saw this one...

Cant wait to hear the reviews...

 

[herman]

If my 67mm lens will work it is an interesting camera.....still I wonder about the 950 mAh battery. Is that going to have the capacity needed for serious for UW use, a minimum of 2- 60+ minutes dives without changing batteries is pretty much a requirement for me. If I can't get at least 2 dives without changing batteries and use my existing lens it's not an acceptable replacement for my 5050.

 

[CheddarChick]

oohhhh..Didn't see that Herman....Hmmmmm I hated my DC500's battery it was a 750mAh that I had to change between every dive......

 

[davelew]

If my 67mm lens will work it is an interesting camera.....still I wonder about the 950 mAh battery. Is that going to have the capacity needed for serious for UW use, a minimum of 2- 60+ minutes dives without changing batteries is pretty much a requirement for me. If I can't get at least 2 dives without changing batteries and use my existing lens it's not an acceptable replacement for my 5050.

Battery life has two components: battery capacity and camera power usage. If the camera doesn't use much power (for example, if it has a new higher efficiency OLED screen instead of an LCD screen), it doesn't need as much battery capacity.

According to Olympus XZ-1 First Look | Digital Camera Resource Page

Canon S95: 200 shots
Canon S90: 220 shots
Samsung TL500: 240 shots
Olympus XZ-1: 320 shots
Panasonic LX-5: 400 shots

so it sounds like the XZ-1 has pretty good battery life (certainly better than the popular S90 and S95). We'll have to wait for real-life usage numbers, of course, but for now the specs look promising.