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Olympus E-400 digital SLR: Small, light and 10 megapixels.
Olympus has announced the E-400 dslr
which is easily the smallest and lightest digital SLR on the market today measuring 129.5 mm x 91 mm x 53 mm and weighing just 375 g body only. The biggest surprise surrounding the new camera is that it will not be available in North America when it starts shipping in November of this year. No doubt this will dismay many North American Olympus users.
The E-400 has a newly developed 10 million pixel sensor and like other Olympus digital SLRs, it also comes with the supersonic wave filter which keeps dust off the sensor and a large 2.5 inch LCD which is only for reviewing pictures as it does not offer live preview. Fortunately, the new camera is compatible with compactflash I and II as well as the XD-picture card. Compactflash memory cards are much more inexpensive than XD cards and offer much larger storage capacities with cards of 2 gb and 4 gb becoming quite common.
The Olympus E-400 is compatible with the Four Thirds Standard and reminds us of the classic Olympus 35mm cameras of old such as the famous OM-10 and OM4. The E-400 is similar in size compared to the old classics and no doubt, Olympus are hoping the new camera will repeat their success.
Other features of the E-400 include over 31 shooting modes as well as PASM for creative manual control. The camera can shoot at 3 fps and can store five images in its' RAW buffer. ISO speeds range from 100 to 1600 and Olympus claim that they have virtually eliminated noise from the new sensor.
The Olympus E-400 will make a great travel camera with its small dimensions and low weight allowing photographers to enjoy SLR photography on the move without the usual restrictions. Olympus are also releasing two new ultra compact lenses which will complement the E-400 and these include the ED 14 - 42 mm F3.5 - 5.6 standard zoom lens (28 - 84 mm 35 equivalent) and the ED 40 - 150 mm F4 - 5.6 zoom (80 - 300 mm 35 mm equivalent).
As stated earlier, the camera will be available in November 2006 but as yet, no prices have been announced. |
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