Olympus xz1 review

Offering a lens that's both faster and sharper overall than its rivals, the Olympus XZ-1 comes out swinging and lands quite a few punches.

Photo Review. A new flagship digicam with a fast zoom lens, a wide range of exposure controls and support for raw file capture and p HD video recording. S Show opened in Las Vegas. An external stereo microphone adapter kit SEMA-1 is also available for clipping onto this port. The new camera, which will be offered in black and white, is similar in size to a typical advanced digicam, although somewhat slimmer than most. Its front panel is dominated by the lens, which is big and bright and covers almost half of the surface area. The lens mounting sticks out approximately 15 mm from the front surface of the camera and has a retracting inner barrel that extends a further 25mm when the camera is powered up.

Olympus xz1 review

The Camera Store's newsletter includes promotions, video reviews, event information, contest links, interesting articles and more. Lost password? Recover password. Remembered your password? Back to login. The Olympus XZ-1 floats to the top of a sea of compacts exceeding most expectations! A few features of the camera caught my attention out of the box. Most prominently a 1. They all hold a special place in the history of cameras. Despite the switch in technology, the XZ-1 reminds me of those lenses, delivering sharp images in varying light conditions, and a useful short-range zoom. Noise is easily reduced, even from. The aluminum body of the camera and clickable aperture ring provides a great tactile experience, and the camera is easily slipped into a pocket while you go for a walk or a hike.

Particularly noteworthy are the Multi Exposure and Underwater modes, which are not usually provided. And, frankly, the worst thing about any of them is their name. That's a good thing, olympus xz1 review.

Ah yes, the Olympus XZ I was supposed to have this review up last week but with all of the Fuji X and Leica X1 hoopla I had to push this one back because I did not have the time to go over the images I snapped with the camera until now. I have been toting along this little powerhouse of a compact for a couple of weeks now and I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the cameras capabilities. I will keep this review short and sweet, and it will focus on my real world use of the camera and NOT charts and resolution tests. It will also be a VERY short review as there is no need to go on and on about the camera because it just does what it does, and it does it well. Olympus released the XZ-1 with a mission in mind. That mission was to release a small compact camera that would not only have more features, better quality and a larger sensor than others in its class, it appears they also wanted to take on some of the super compacts like the Leica X1 and new Fuji X

Professional features include a full manual exposure mode, raw image capture, wireless TTL flash control and compatibility with a wide range of accessories including external flashguns and macro LED lights, a detachable electronic viewfinder and external microphone set. The first mock-ups of a then-unnamed premium compact camera from Olympus were shown at the Photokina trade show in September last year. Although Olympus was rather secretive about it at the time, we were told that it would be the first-ever digital compact camera to feature a Zuiko branded lens and be compatible with a range of accessories originally developed for the Micro Four Thirds system. Then, on 6 January , Olympus announced the name and full specifications of the new product. The Olympus XZ-1 was born. While the name evokes memories of the Olympus XA, a groundbreaking but highly automated 35mm compact camera from , the Olympus XZ-1 is actually a much more serious proposition offering full manual control over the picture-taking process. The grip-less camera feels surprisingly good in the hand, thanks to thoughtful ideas like a small but well placed thumb rest on the rear panel.

Olympus xz1 review

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Last year was a great one for high-end compact cameras. The camera was officially announced in January this year, at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, and its specification will certainly turn a few heads. Although the resolution may seem low compared to consumer compacts, the idea is that the reduced resolution should help keep image noise to a minimum, particularly at high sensitivities. The wide aperture of this optic allows for shooting in low light and offers a shallow depth of field, which can be hard to achieve on compact cameras. The lens delivered as promised in low light and, combined with sensor-shift image stabilisation, gave me the opportunity to photograph night-time cityscapes handheld. However, one area of concern is the presence of barrel distortion when shooting at the shortest focal length. Taken from the Olympus micro four thirds cameras, the XZ-1 features an accessory port that allows additional devices, such as an electronic viewfinder or external microphone, to be attached to the camera hotshoe, but more on this later. For those less competent with manual exposure options there are a range of automatic exposure settings and scene modes, including the Live Guide. Having recently been impressed with the handling and design of the Olympus Pen E-PL2, I was pleased to see that the XZ-1 has much in common with this camera.

Femiclear

There isn't a direct correlation between the ring position and aperture, however. Make adjustments and watch the LCD as the effects are made live — before the image is captured! There were a lot of people but they were surprisingly considerate about stepping in front of a camera. But unlike Shawn, this did cause me grief. Again, I would be happier if ISO was accessible by way of a dedicated button, and the click-stop dial was used for Program AE shift, a function sadly missing from the otherwise feature-packed Olympus XZ Richard Franiec was fast getting the XZ-1 grip ready for the camera. Everyone has their own tastes though, so the key is to buy a camera that YOU like with features you want. XZ-1 vs XF. The external accessory port also allows for connection with the SEMA-1 external microphone adapter set for enhanced audio capture. Considering how easy it was to make double exposures on film cameras, it's surprising to see how few digicams offer this function. Macro : The Olympus XZ-1's Macro mode captures a very sharp image with strong detail throughout the frame, and manages to do so without any strong blurring in the corners of the frame a common limitation among consumer digital cameras in macro mode. It puts this camera in a totally different class. Zuiko lens with a focal length from 6. At telephoto, performance is still quite good, though very mild blurring is present in the furthest corners. Suppressed Flash - Telephoto mm.

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Bouquets to Art. But it was consistently misleading. Focus distance is too close in Super mode to allow effective use of the flash. Please Login or Register to create posts and topics. Most of you reading this are most likely hobbyists who shoot and post to the web. Recover password. Nice review, Steve. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye Flash settings caused any red-eye. It was nice to see the Scroll Wheel on the back do double duty in Manual mode as the shutter speed control at least after you press the EV button. That's a wide-angle starting point which left me a bit short in the telephoto department for those distant shots of famous places you take on vacation. The dynamic range of the sensor also appeared to be wider than we commonly see in small-sensor digicams.