This is the
age of premium compact cameras. With the worldwide success of the OM-D series,
Olympus appears to have finally found the formula for winning the market in
terms of design and performance. The Olympus Stylus 1 boasts a 12-megapixel
1/1.7-inch Type sensor, Raw format capture, constant
maximum aperture of f/2.8, 10x zoom, and built-in Wi-Fi.
Olympus today is announcing their new Stylus 1
camera–a small sensor camera
with OMD EM5 styling but with a small sensor and a fixed f2.8 long zoom
Design and Build
Quality
The Stylus
1 is built with tough engineering plastic and is designed like the OM-D E-M5.
The first thing you will notice with this camera is the innovative lens cap.
Olympus has designed this screw-in cap in such a way that you can switch on the
camera without removing it. The front of the cap has four shutter panels fixed
on hinges, which open outward when the lens extends. The camera has a control
ring around the lens in addition to the command dial on the top panel. The LCD
screen can be tilted up and down. The built-in flash pops up about a centimetre just enough to reveal the flash head and a metal
tripod receptacle. The camera has a standard accessory shoe.
Olympus Stylus 1 - Top View With
Flash Hot Shoe, Mode Dial & Control Dial
Key Features
The
12-megapixel Olympus Stylus 1 uses a 1/1.7-inch Type (7.60 x 5.70 mm) CMOS
sensor for imaging. The camera features a 28-300mm equivalent lens offering a
constant maximum aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom range (f/2.8-8). The
lens is constructed with 12 elements in 10 groups including eight aspherical elements to eliminate spherical aberration, and
has built-in optical image stabilisation system. The
lens focusses from 10cm to infinity at the wide-angle end and 80cm to infinity
at the telephoto end in normal mode, and from 5 to 60cm in Super Macro mode.
Focus modes available are Single AF (S-AF), Super Macro Mode, Continuous AF
(C-AF), AF tracking (C-AF + TR), and Manual Focus (MF) with Face Priority and
Eye Detect AF available. The focus sensor uses a 35-area multiple AF. Focus
point options are All target, Group target area
(9-area), and Single target. The camera uses the usual three metering modes—Digital
ESP, Centre-weighted average, and Spot. The Stylus 1 records still images in
Raw (12-bit lossless) or JPEG format with an option to record both
simultaneously, the maximum size being 3968 x 2976 pixels. Videos are recorded
in MOV format (MPEG- 4AVC/H.264) or Motion JPEG with the best quality of 1920 x
1080 at 30p. Videos can be recorded for a maximum time of 29 min per clip.
Zoom from 28 to 300mm at a fixed 1:2.8 aperture
in one single lens.
The all-in-one STYLUS 1 lens is special – for a number of reasons.
Shooting
modes available are iAuto, P (Program AE), A
(Aperture priority AE), S (Shutter priority AE), M (Manual), Custom (C1 and
C2), Photo Story, Scene select AE, and Art Filter. Scene select mode provides
options of Portrait, e-Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night + Portrait,
Sunset, Documents, Panorama, Fireworks, Multiplex exposure, and Beach & Snow.
Art Filters included are Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Colour, Light Tone, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama, Cross
Process, Gentle Sepia, Dramatic Tone, and Key Line. In addition to this, the
camera provides five Art Effects — Soft Focus, Pin-Hole, White Edge, Frame
Effect, and Star Light. The Stylus 1’s ISO sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to
12,800. exposure can be compensated up to +/-3 EV in
1/3 EV steps. Shutter speeds range from 60 to 1/2000sec, along with a Bulb mode
which provides up to 30 min of exposure.
