Olympus Unveils New Touch Control Interface

By Staff On Sep 15 2008 - 6:00am

Olympus will ship several new digital cameras to dealers for the fall, including a new ultra-zoom and a weatherproof Stylus that reacts to touch.

The company will ship the SP-565 UZ in October.

The 10-megapixel camera packs a 20x optical zoom lens (26-520mm, 35mm equivalent), 2.5-inch LCD, sensor-shifting image stabilization, shadow adjustment, perfect-shot preview, manual controls and a 13.5 fps burst mode for 3-megapixel stills.

A pre-capture feature records up to 10 stills when the focus is locked but before the shutter is fully depressed.

It will retail for $399.

The company also added a new shock and waterproof camera to its Stylus SW line. The 10-megapixel Stylus 1050 features a new "tap control" body that activates camera features when a user taps the camera body. Two taps to the camera's side will, for instance, activate the flash or shadow adjustment feature.

The interface is meant to allow users wearing gloves to operate the camera without having to press buttons.

The redesigned Stylus incorporates a lens faceplate, which doubles as an on/off switch. It is waterproof to a depth of 10 feet and incorporates an LED illuminator. It offers face detection, a smile shot (which uses face detection and records three consecutive images of a smiling subject), in-camera panorama stitching, perfect shot preview and in-camera editing.

Additional features include a 3x optical zoom lens, a 2.7-inch HyperCrystal II LCD, and 47MB of internal memory.

It will retail for $299 and be available in blue, champagne, silver and black.

Finally, Olympus added two new entry level FE series cameras to its lineup, shipping now. The FE-360 and 370 both offer 8-megapixel sensors, face detection, image stabilization, perfect shot preview modes, and in-camera help guides. They will both be sold in red, blue, pink, black and silver.

For $149, the FE-360 features a 3x optical zoom lens, 20 scene modes, and a 2.5-inch LCD.

The 370 features sensor-shift image stabilization, a new intelligent auto mode, a 5x optical zoom, 18 shooting modes, in-camera red eye fix, smile shot and a 2.7-inch LCD. It will retail for $199.