Olympus Hits High Note

By Greg Scoblete On Jul 22 2002 - 6:00am

The megapixel wars may be over, or at least muted, but when Olympus announced its E10 4-megapixel camera, the battle was in full-swing. The 4-megapixel digital SLR was a very high-end camera at a price point of $1,999 in its original introduction, but it sold well—almost 27,000 units.

"This was all about picture quality," said John Knaur, senior product manager, digital. "It was really a matter of the right product at the right time with the right set of features at the right price."

Of the various competitors in its megapixel range, the E10 ranked fourth in unit sales but first in dollar sales. More impressive was the fact that through most of the product's life it cost about double what its other unit-share competitors did.

The camera was designed for the advanced amateur and professional markets, but sold well outside of traditional photo-specialty outlets, Knaur said. "Electronics retailers did well with it after it had been on the market for a while. I would say the final split was about 60-40" favoring photo specialty, Knaur said.

Knaur placed particular emphasis on the advanced lens system. The E10 was outfitted with a specially designed low dispersion ED lens to ensure that light evenly hit the CCD sensor to capture a clearer, more accurate image.