Olympus releases nine new cameras, none blow our minds

Basically just pre-PMA upgrades to existing models all around, Olympus just loosed nine new shooters. Almost all feature "HyperCrystal" or "HyperCrystal II" displays (not to be confused with hypercolor, dudes), facial recognition, OIS, high ISO modes, and a bunch of other stuff that every other camera company does now. Here's the quick rundown.
FE series (February)

• FE-310 - 8 megapixel, 5x zoom, 2.5-inch LCD
• FE-340 - 8 megapixel, 5x zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• FE-350 - 8 megapixel, 4x zoom, 28mm wide angle lens, 3-inch LCD

Mju / Stylus series (February)

• Mju 840 - 8 megapixel, 5x optical, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 850 SW - 8 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD, waterproof to 3m
• Mju 1010 - 10.1 megapixel, 7x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 1020 - 10.1 megapixel, 7x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 1030 - 10.1 megapixel, 3.6x zoom, 2.7-inch LCD, waterproof to 10m

SP series (March)

• SP-570 UZ - 10 megapixel, 20x wide angle zoom, OIS, 2.7-inch LCD

Gallery: Olympus releases nine new cameras, none blow our minds

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[Robots, Take Over, Please @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:52AM]

I'm just drooling over that Super-Duper HyperCrystal 3000 LCD screen!

[Jon Doe. @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:54AM]

DAMN IT STOP DOING THAT! :-P
Every time I come over to Engadget and see an camera on the front page my hopes of a replacement for the XTI goes up...then get dashed. Now is the supposed timeframe that rumors have been suggesting Canon is dropping a couple new cameras on us before that expo in Vegas in a couple weeks.

[a ham sandwich @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:59AM]

yeah, but the title says "but none blow our minds". what did u expect? sarcasm?

[Nathan @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:04AM]

@ a ham sandwich
I am up-voting your comment, and ever comment you author hereafter, simply because of your name. Bravo sir, well played.

I can't explain why I think it's so funny, but it had/s me rolling.

In other news, don't say anything controversial about Ryan's writing or the comments in this thread may get disabled as well.

[muyiwa @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:40AM]

consider the olympus E510 or E410 as a good replacement for the XTI

[a ham sandwich @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:15PM]

haha well thank you very much nathan, i appreciate the sentiment. but, you know, ive been commenting here for years

http://www.blogsmith.com/profile/33170/

[grjohnston @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:54AM]

I recently bought the SP-550, and think I might prefer it. But, I'm not sure. Is that a zoom ring on the lens I see? 'Cause there's no more zoom switch under the shutter button. Where else did it go? I'd prefer some rings on the lens (the manual focus on the SP-550 is fairly horrible, and I just love the feel of sliding back and forth to get the perfect focus), but I'd prefer a zoom switch with the shutter button to... nowhere visible.

[Nick Carchidi @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:01AM]

Notice how all of these professional cameras all look the same?? How dull.

[Nathan @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:06AM]

What professional cameras? All the shots in the gallery look like point-and-shoot models to me, anyone else?

[Nick Carchidi @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:12AM]

Well maybe I mistook them for real pro. cameras. Aren't they?

[F3 @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:21PM]

There were no pro cameras or even advanced amateur cameras in this news post. What are you talking about?

[Jeff @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:13AM]

I bet they still use those useless xD cards.

[Duw @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:49AM]

Just stop using xD cards and I'll gladly recommend your products. Right now your xD-H cards are still slower than a 10x CF card...

[Techjunkiez @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:49AM]

those xd cards are costly too .my techjunkiez forum group hates that for this reason only.xd cards are rarely sold in my city.

[coolbee8 @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:49AM]

I'm sorry, but if a x20 optical zoom in a relatively small body frame doesn't blow your mind, then you either don't know what it mean or don't have a mind.

[F3 @ Jan 22nd 2008 1:22PM]

You say that because you don't realize the effect a superzoom has on image quality. Here's a hint: It's bad.

[coolbee8 @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:52AM]

Put it this way, at this scale, its much better than digital zoom; and image quality, put it this way, while I have canon 1Ds mark 2 and lens collection, there are times that i don't want to take ike 3 lens with me, a brick of a charger; while there are times to carry it, sp570 would be useful compromise on image quality.

[Dv8or @ Jan 22nd 2008 7:56AM]

What about the fact that the camera pictured has a lens .."covering the astounding range of 26-520mm (35mm equivalent)." This makes it the leader in this class of camera. ENGADGET - DO YOUR HOMEWORK BETTER BEFORE HEADLINES LIKE THAT!

[Daniel @ Jan 22nd 2008 9:49AM]

They were the leader in the class with their 18x model last year, but the reviews were incredibly bad, so I'm sure it is not worth mentioning.

[Rudy @ Jan 22nd 2008 9:34AM]

I have an E330 and it has dual card slots CF and XD so you can use either I hope they did the same in the new ones noted here. I really like the E330 and I got it New for only $365.00 with a lens got to love Ubid.

[DG @ Jan 22nd 2008 11:14AM]

"None" is a contracted version of "not one." You wouldn't say "Not one blow our minds," just like you shouldn't say "none blow our minds." Additionally, both clauses are complete thoughts, so your comma is actually a comma splice error.

Your headline should read as follows: Olympus releases nine new cameras; none blows our minds.

[grjohnston @ Jan 22nd 2008 12:09PM]

@ coolbee8 and Dv8or

20x zoom on a non-pro camera isn't exactly fantabulous. As I said in a previous comment, I've got the SP-550, and it has 18x. The image stabilization isn't good enough to keep any picture anywhere near in focus at that amount of zoom. A tripod would be nice, and I guess buying a tripod and this camera would still cost less than buying a full pro, but most people that would buy one of these mid-range pseudo-dSLRs aren't going all out like that. Unless the 570 makes huge strides in image stabilization, these megazooms are really only good up to about 12x, and Olympus should maybe look into maybe opening up the range on the short end.

Honestly, I think that two extra megapixels (from 8 on the SP-550 to 10 here) is a bigger advantage than two extra factors of zoom, because, as a pseudo-dSLR, the SP series still have the smaller sensors of point-and-shoots. Not that I'm complaining about the 1Mb-sized pictures at highest resolution that the 550 takes. But seriously, the other day, I was standing at the other end of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge (on Bernal Hill, for anyone that knows the city) and could zoom in so far I almost couldn't fit both uprights into the picture. The problem then, though, was that I couldn't take a non-blurry picture.

[coolbee8 @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:52AM]

@grjohnston

If you have a 550, you will know that it has 7.1 MP, When 550 came out, i wanted to get it, then reality of bad review came in, and i decided against it; when 560 came out, I also wanted it, then again there were FZ18, and slightly weaker lens reach + still slow and i again decided to wait. Notice that 560 is a move to correct the errors of 550,it has kind of done that though not doing anything new to outgun other similar model, 560, FZ18, fd8000s generation megazooms were still flawed; though now there is this, it introduces significant new feature, and if history repeat, this spec will be impress but there will also be much more error introduced than good features.

I personally use canon 1 and 5 series dSLR very often, though i'm not taking the to holiday everytime, there is time and place. Sometimes i chose portability over image quality, while raw spec doesn't mean everything, 570 can be great or screw up again.

Beside, 550 was very slow and overall unimpressive, if you have based your comment over that alone, then the slight biased and unfair.

[grjohnston @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:27PM]

@ coolbee8

It's true, I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of others dSLRs (essentially, only hands on experience with the 550, but let's say I know what the numbers mean). But I think that my assessment, that without greater image stabilization, an increase in zoom range on the SP-500 series isn't worth it.
(It's true, it's 7.1 and not 8. I know what the numbers mean... but sometimes, close is good enough for me.)

I took a look, though, and noticed that the sensor on the 570, while 10Mps instead of 7.1Mps, is actually smaller. While it's great that they've found a way to squeeze the huge zoom into the small frame, I thought that one of the major advantages of a dSLR over a point-and-shoot was the larger sensor? Is Olympus not just throwing on useless extra zoom because their image stabilization is just as poor, but also making sacrifices in other areas to get it?

[chadow @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:07PM]

Just get an Olympus Evolt 510 from circuitcity. At $564 for the 2 lens kit (both very good for kit lenses) there cant possibly be a better high quality camera deal going on right now. I almost have to assume thats a price error as some places still sell it for $799

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Olympus-Evolt-E-410-10-Megapixel-Digital-SLR-2-Lens-Kit-EVOLTE4102LNS/sem/rpsm/oid/180238/catOid/-16942/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do