Olympus' low-enders: FE-210, FE-230, FE-240, and FE-250 with ridiculous ISO 10,000

Tired of the Olympus news yet? No, then try on four new entry-level cams from their FE-series: the FE-210, FE-230, FE-240, and FE-250. All ship in February with a 2.5-inch LCD 'round back and support for xD-Picture Card format -- all lack image stabilization which we expect at the low end. The $150 FE-210 is at the bottom of this pile with a 7.1 megapixel CCD, 3x optical zoom, and power supplied by 2x AA batteries. The $200 FE-230 and $250 FE-240 share that CCD but introduce Olympus' TruePic Turbo image processing to the series as well as a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The FE-230 packs an ISO 1250 while the FE-240 scales back to ISO 1000 but ups the optical zoom to 5x with a 3-cm macro mode. The $300 FE-250 then, is lord of the serfs with an 8.1 megapixel sensor, 3x zoom, BrightCapture low-light technology, and likely pointless ISO 6400 (or ISO 10,000 at 3 megapixels) without any image stabilization. Peep the rest of the pics after the break if you're not seething after that last one. Olympus, out.

[Thanks, David]

Read -- FE-210
Read -- FE-230
Read -- FE-240
Read -- FE-250

[Zyph @ Jan 25th 2007 10:50AM]

Remember kiddies, ISO isn't like contrast ratio on your plasmas, higher isn't better unless you have some serious noise compensation.

[Homosapien @ Jan 25th 2007 11:23AM]

DARR...>

[Moogle @ Jan 25th 2007 4:51PM]

On one camera, yes, but that's not strictly true between camera models.

Digital camera noise is a result of sensor sensitivity. You can fake ISO on digital cameras by brightening the image. If you make a better sensor, you'll have less noise. Presumably these are some fairly new tech sensors, and I think we still have a lot more flexibility left than they ever had in silver halide crystals.

Sure, ISO 10,000 on one of these puppies is probably kinda noisy, but I'd imagine only as much as ISO 800 is on my 5 year old camera.

[stretchsje @ Jan 25th 2007 11:24AM]

Olympus doesn't even make an SLR that is clean at ISO1600. What makes them think they can take a much smaller sensor and push it nearly three stops farther?

Olympus is just embarrassing itself with these cameras. Even the most casual photographers can quickly see how awful high ISO's are on tiny sensors.

I see the lens only gets as bright as F/3.3 and quickly goes to a horrible F/5. (This is a measurement that, among other things, tells us how much light the lens will let in- a lower number is exponentially better.) F/3.3 is slightly worse than normal and means the camera will need to use these noisy high ISO's to get proper exposure.

If a camera manufacturer were serious about low light, they'd stop with these stupid high ISO's and start using faster lenses- like Canon used to do with the G series. The G2 series used an F/2-2.5 lens, which meant it let in twice as much light at the same ISO as its competitors at the wide end and three times as much as the above camera at the telephoto end. Thus, a G2 could operate at ISO400 whereas the above Olympus would have to push its noisy sensor to ISO1600 just to get the same exposure.

[Dan @ Jan 25th 2007 11:36AM]

Yay for crappy cameras! ISO anything over 400 on a budget camera is just embarrassing to the hobby.

[no3rdw @ Jan 25th 2007 12:40PM]

Want your camera to do ISO 10000?

Here's a guide:

1) Take a photo with your camera at any ISO setting
2) Bring photo into Photoshop
3) Apply noise filter with the following settings (Amount: 200%, Distribution: Uniform, Monochromatic unchecked)
4) ENJOY BEAUTIFUL ISO 10000 PHOTOGRAPHS!

[Chad @ Jan 25th 2007 12:58PM]

Hmmm, I got a Fuji F20 for my parents for christmas for around $170 with a 512 MB memory card and case, right around the price of these entry level cameras. And while the ISO3200 mode isn't that usable, ISO800 is incredibly clean and ISO1600 is surprisingly usable for small prints and screen viewing. Now on these budget cameras, well, I'd doubt the ISO would do a whole lot for you, and for the price the F20 is probably a smarter bet...

[psxp @ Jan 25th 2007 1:33PM]

They start looking like CANON clones!

[swoop @ Jan 25th 2007 2:46PM]

There is some pretty nice software out there (sorry, don't recall the name but I did test it a few months ago) that can get rid of a lot of noise. These cameras may have similar algorithms built in.

[Josh @ Jan 25th 2007 5:34PM]

Anyone with a dSLR would slober all over a nice f/2.8 zoom... then again, the 1000$ it costs to buy the cheapest f/2.8L sounds too nice to invest in a lens.

IMHO ISO 1600 is too high on a rebel XT with an excellent dSLR sensor, can't imagine what that would look like on a "budget" point-and-shoot.

*continues enjoying weekend with 70-200mm f/4L*

[KorruptioN @ Jan 25th 2007 8:19PM]

ISO10000?

Olympus is the only camera manufacturer that will allow you to take pictures *OF* noise!