LAS VEGAS -- Olympus has announced the rather hot-looking XZ1, an enthusiast compact camera that goes up against the Panasonic LX-5, the Canon G12 and Nikon's P7000.
As befits this kind of camera, gimmicks are kept to a minimum, and pro-level features dominate. Thus there is a large 1/1.63-inch sensor (similar to the 1/1.7-inch sensor in the Canon G12 and S95) with 10 megapixels, a very fast lens (ƒ1.8 at 28mm rising to a still great ƒ2.5 at 112mm). Maximum ISO is a see-in-the-dark 6400, and up top you'll find an accessory shoe for an optional electronic viewfinder and a flash. And speaking of flash, the XZ1 can wirelessly control off-camera flashes, too.
The metal-fronted XZ1 shares its image processor chip (TruPic V) with the current Pen Micro Four Thirds camera, and puts a 3-inch OLED screen on the back (with a decent but not class-leading 621,000 dots). And while other manufacturers ([cough] Panasonic [cough]) seem intent on doing away with manual controls, Olympus has put a wheel on the back and a ring around the lens which can be set to the function of your choice.
Inside you have RAW capture and AVI Motion JPEG capture of 1280 x 720, AF tracking and a handful of fancy color-tweaking modes. And that's about it.
Pending testing, this looks like a very solid competitor in the high-end compact field. It's a little bigger than the Canon S95 and the Panasonic LX-5, but way smaller than the G12, and costs $500. Available now, if you can find one.
Olympus XZ1 product page [Olympus]
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