The lens is a 25mm f/2.8 (50mm equivalent) and it’s replacing the which replaces the Olympus EVOLT E-410.

This lightweight 10-megapixel DSLR offers heavyweight technologies, including a bigger, more viewable 2.7-inch LCD and consumer-friendly fast On-Screen Autofocus, Face Detection, Shadow Adjustment Technology and Perfect Shot Preview to get the most out of the Live View experience. Additionally, when it comes to Live View, not all LCDs are created equal. At 2.7-inches, the portable E-420 LCD is large enough for users to compose and review images without squinting. The small camera’s LCD is not just larger, it is part of a camera with technologies intelligent enough to take advantage of the Live View photography experience.

Read the full release here:

Little wonder: Olympus launches E420

It’s a pretty solid camera toting the fastest AF on the market (only with SWD lenses of course) and vivid Olympus colours. The main problem of course with the Olympus system in general is the limitation of the sensor size..This means in reality it can never compete on a noise/detail level with other 1.5x or 1.6x crop sensors and will be nowhere near full frame offerings from any camp.

Also the much touted AF is only fast in bright light, in dim conditions it hunts worse than Canon or Nikon cameras with AF-S or USM lenses.

The noise in dim conditions is also quite bad and visible as low as ISO200, in bright conditions it stands up well to ISO1600.

Features

• A 10.1 effective Megapixel LiveMOS sensor
• Sensor-shift image stabilization
• Live view on a flip-out, rotating 2.5″ LCD display
• World’s fastest autofocus when paired with the 12 – 60 mm SWD lens pictured above (according to Olympus)
• Shoots at 5 frames/second
• Weather-sealed, very well-built body
• Dust reduction system
• Large optical viewfinder
• Dual memory card slots (xD + CF)

All in all it’s a well specced and well built camera, it might not suite everyone but it certainly does have a following.

All things considered, the Olympus E-3 is a solid midrange digital SLR, in more ways than one. It does almost everything well, with just a few weaknesses, most of which have easy workarounds. If you’re an enthusiast looking for a powerful D-SLR that doesn’t mind if it gets a little bit wet, then I can highly recommend taking a look at the E-3.

Read the full review here:

DCRP Review: Olympus E-3

I always prefer compacts to start wider than zoom further, it’d be ideal if they started at 24mm IMHO, with a 20x zoom would be great.

The Olympus SP-570 UZ – main features:

• 20x optical zoom (equivalent to 26-520mm) – from extreme close-ups to stunning scenes
• Avoids blur thanks to Dual Image Stabilisation
• Don’t miss the moment with high-speed 15fps sequence shooting
• Face Detection Technology for perfectly focused and exposed faces plus correct exposure of other image areas
• P/A/S/M exposure modes for creative freedom
• 22 scene modes for the best results in different situations
• 10 Megapixels to make poster-size prints
• See and share images on the 6.9cm/2.7″ LCD
• Great for shots of flowers and detail from as close as 1cm with Super Macro mode

I’ll certainly be looking forwards to the reviews on this one, a very versatile backup and travel camera. The performance of the previous model was a little disappointing. Both in terms of speed and image quality.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Panasonic and Fuji follow again with 20x zooms and 10megapixel upgrades.

Read the full release here:

Olympus SP-570 UZ

• New 10MP Live MOS sensor and TruePic III processor
• CCD-shift image stabilization
• The return of Live View
• New kit lenses
• Faster USB interface (‘real’ USB 2.0 speed)
• All-new body shape
• Wired remote option

Looks like the E-510 is a winner, especially for fans of the FourThirds system.

But overall, especially considering the excellent pricing, extensive feature set, effective image stabilization and superb design/construction/handling, the E-510 is an impressive and hugely rewarding camera in use. The results from the kit lens are some of the best we’ve ever seen, the SSWF dust reduction system is the most effective on the market and the whole package shows that Olympus understands the needs of the photographer as well as – if not better than – any of its major competitors. If it had a better sensor (less noise and better dynamic range) the E-510 would be a strong candidate for category winner; as it is you’ll need to decide if the slight compromises the sensor demands are going to affect the type of pictures you take.

Read the full and extremely in-depth review here:

Olympus E-510 EVOLT Review – DPReview

If you are a higher end user, you might want to wait for the Olympus Evolt E-3 reviews to come out, it looks like a great camera with a street price in Malaysia of around RM4000 for the body.

In June 2003 Olympus revealed the E-1, which many people touted as the best Olympus camera. It certainly had the fastest focusing. Now we have the long awaited replacement the 10 megapixel E-3.

A friend managed to get a hands on in Japan at the launch, his intial notes were that the AF was extremely fast and there was no colour or exposure shift at higher ISO.

Noise at high ISO is very monochromatic and detail is retained, much like the results from the latest crop of Olympus dSLRs with a few tweaks.

This new high-speed flagship of the Olympus E-System features the world’s fastest autofocus with 11-point-full twin cross sensoring, high-speed sequential shooting at 5 fps, and high-speed shutter up to 1/8000 second. The optional HLD-4 Power Battery Holder can hold up to two Lithium Ion BLM-1 batteries to extend the performance life, and like the E-3 body, the battery holder is splash-proof and dust-proof.

The E-3 body will be available in November for a street price of $1,699 – so that should put it at about RM6k in Malaysia.

You can read the full press release here:

Olympus E-3 at DPReview

Default image quality is good, if not as crisp as the competition. However, if you play with the settings for a while, or more specifically turn Noise Filter off and set Sharpness to -2 (to compensate for the default high sharpening used to overcome the softening effect of the Noise Filter) you’ll see that the camera is capturing just as much detail (if not more) than other ten megapixel digital SLRs, and that the lens is more than up to the job too.

So what’s the final word? At the end of the day I found myself quite liking the E-410, it’s a grower that offers great value for money in a small compact package, has some real stand-out features and hasn’t been crippled to ‘fit into the range’ like similar models from other manufacturers. Just make sure you turn off the Noise Filter!

They seem to have fixed the overexposure issue too, looks like a nice camera. I’ll be looking forwards to see how the new Olympus E-510 EVOLT turns out.

I guess the downside is the lack of dynamic range, I would think this is due to their smaller than standard sensor size (remember Olympus has a 2x crop factor not 1.5x or 1.6x like Nikon or Canon).

Olympus E-410 EVOLT Review at DPReview

The SP-550 UZ main features:

• 18x wide optical zoom (equivalent to 28-504mm on a 35mm camera) 1:2.8-4.5
• Dual Image Stabilization
• 7.1 Megapixels
• 6.4cm/2.5″ LCD with 230,000 pixels
• High burst rate (up to 15fps*)
• Super Macro mode (from as close as 1cm)
• P/A/S/M exposure modes
• BrightCapture Technology for better low light photography – also available in movie mode
• 23 scene modes (including Portrait, Sports, Night Scene)
• 25 languages on board
• Internal memory plus xD-Picture Card slot
• Supplied with Olympus Master software and four AA batteries

I mean realistically I wasn’t expecting too much, and I am looking for a backup compact camera for the times when I don’t carry my dSLR around and also something to use for underwater shooting.

I’m glad they chose to go with the wider end at 28mm rather than the standard 35mm for those sweeping landscapes.

The camera seems to perform reasonably well.

Olympus SP-550 Ultra Zoom – Digital Camera Review

The Olympus SP-550 Ultra Zoom, with it’s impressive wide-angle 18x optical zoom lens and CCD-Shift image stabilisation, is an appealing digital camera providing a zoom range of 28mm – 504mm. It feels very comfortable in hand, and produces very good images with very pleasing colours and generally low noise. The screen and electronic viewfinder are good. The camera is easy to use, especially with the built in help and shooting guide, and camera speed is fairly good. The camera offers good battery life, with very good controls and very good build quality.

Olympus SP-550 UZ Review – Photography Blog

With an asking price of £375 in the UK, which is similar to what some retailers are now asking for body-only DSLR deals, potential purchasers of the Olympus SP-550 UZ face a hard choice – particularly those who are upgrading from a simple point-and-shoot, and don’t already have the increased flexibility of a prosumer camera. Build quality is however good given its mainly plastic frame – the camera is solidly fashioned, attractively finished, and with batteries inserted feels capable of withstanding a few knocks in the heat of the action. The necessary unfurling of that zoom lens however does slow down responsiveness.

DCRP Review: Olympus SP-550 Ultra Zoom

The Olympus SP-550 Ultra Zoom is a great example of a marketing-driven cameras. I’m just guessing here, but the marketing folks at Olympus probably got together and said “let’s make an ultra zoom camera with the biggest and baddest specs on the market”, and then the engineers had to make it work. And it works, for the most part — though plenty of compromises were made. While it’s not the best ultra zoom on the market, the SP-550 is still a very good one, and certainly worth a look.

Olympus SP-550 UZ Review – DPReview

The SP-550UZ is, then, a camera that tries a little to hard to be a true jack of all trades, and ends up being master of none; a perfect example of the whole being lesser than the sum of its parts. And yet the funny thing is, that after all that, I actually quite liked it. I guess – in a perverse way – it’s sometimes nice to use a camera that forces you out of the lazy ‘point and shoot’ mentality and reminds you that photographers, not cameras, take pictures.

All in all, it might be better to stick with the upcoming Canon Powershot S5 IS.

Sensor cleaning is becoming a standard feature on modern digital SLR cameras. While the manufacturers may use different techniques to get rid of the dust from the image sensor, they all promise clean, dust free images. Do they all work equally well? Can we throw our air blower away? We have tested the four different types of sensor cleaning technologies to see which one will most likely to fulfill the expectations.

I was quite surprised with the results, and how badly they all performed. It turns out they are all pretty much useless when it comes to cleaning/dust removal. Only the Olympus fared reasonably.

Here is our ranking according to effectiveness:

1. Olympus: good
2. Canon: poor (we are disappointed)
3. Pentax and Sony: useless (we are very disappointed)

If you are looking for a camera, have the dust removal as an expectation only at the end of your list. If sensor cleaning / dust removal is a must, the choices are limited to Olympus and Panasonic cameras.

Read the full test here:

Review: Dust removal systems / sensor cleaning

This model features a new CCD with 10.0 million pixels and a state-of-the-art amplifier circuit for incredible imaging performance at super fast speed. As the design of the E-400 is based on the Four Thirds Standard, users have virtually unlimited flexibility.

E-System cameras, the E-400 features the Supersonic Wave Filter – ensuring dust-free photography, even after changing lenses under challenging conditions.

The Olympus E-400 digital SLR – main features:

• World’s smallest and lightest D-SLR
• 10.0 million pixels
• 6.4cm/2.5” LCD
• Supersonic Wave Filter for dust protection
• Dual memory card slots (for xD-Picture Card and CompactFlash)
• 31 shooting modes (incl. 5 exposure, 7 creative & 19 scene modes)
• Built-in pop-up flash (GN 10)
• 3fps with up to five images in RAW buffer
• One touch white balance
• TruePic TURBO image processor
• AE/AF lock functionality
• Depth of field preview function
• Improved 49 segment digital ESP and spot metering
• Exposure Bracketing function
• Large beginners and advanced info screen
• Detailed playback info screen with histogram
• Exceptional ease of use with intuitive GUI and buttons that provide immediate access to frequently used features
• JPEG & RAW recording
• Based on Four Thirds Standard
• Underwater Case available (PT-E03) waterproof to 40m

It looks like it might be good, but I’m still worried for Olympus and the Four Thirds standard, it doesn’t seem to be doing well.

I would estimate this camera should be around RM2000-2500.