Olympus outs Stylus 1, packs 28-300mm f/2.8 lens

With the rapid growth of camera-equipped smartphones in the market, camera manufacturers have been pushed to bring their “A” game for their products to stay relevant in this digital age. That’s exactly what Olympus did when they unveiled their latest high-end point-and-shoot camera, the Stylus 1.

Although a direct descendant of the Stylus XZ-2, the Stylus 1’s physique is more akin to the fairly new Olympus OM-D E-M1 than to its predecessor. But more than just the form factor, the new enthusiast camera is also peppered with buttons and knobs, including control ring around the lens, for seamless customizations on the fly.

Now in terms of photographic features, the Stylus 1 packs a 10.7x zoom lens that gives users an equivalent reach of 28-300mm. In addition, the lens has a fixed aperture of f/2.8 which comes in handy in low-light situations and blurring the background.

Olympus Stylus 1 specs:
12MP 1/1.-inch BSI-CMOS sensor
TruePic VI image processor
10.7x optical zoom (28-300mm eq.)
F/2.8 (fixed aperture)
100 – 12800 ISO
60sec. – 1/2000 shutter speed
1080p video recording @30fps
Slow-Motion capture at 120fps
Multi-functional zoom ring
3-inch 1.04M-dot touchscreen LCD (tilting)
1.44M-dot Electronic Viewfinder
100% coverage @1.15x magnification
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
BLS-5 1150mAh Li-Ion battery
116 x 67 x 57 mm
179 g

Olympus’ new bridge camera is slated to be available by December and will be sold for USD700 apiece. If you feel like you need more reach, you can also add the $199.99 Olympus TCON-17X tele-conventer lens to the package, effectively extending the Stylus 1’s range up to 540mm without affecting the aperture.

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