Pixiq

The mirror-less camera express rolls on. Not wanting to be outdone by Sony, Panasonic, or Pentax, Olympus has released three new mirror-less cameras today. And one of them claims that much-coveted (by recent activity’s standards, anyway) crown of smallest and lightest camera. Still, these are all Micro Four Thirds compatible, giving them about 15 billion different lens options and you can’t help but feel that they’re variations on a very specific theme. No prices have been released yet. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare when the cameras meet consumers later this year.

With three cameras to get through, this is a bit of whistle-stop tour. Are you ready?

E-P3

Let’s start with the E-P3, which Olympus is referring to as just ‘PEN’. They reckon it’ll be a style icon, harking back to the good old days, but still stylish in 50 years’ time. Me? I’m not so in love with it, but if I can live with its slightly dubious looks, what’s it got to offer?

Well, for a start, it has FAST auto-focusing technology, which puts it ahead of the pack when it comes to auto-focusing speeds amongst interchangeable lens cameras. Good, very good. What’s next?

How about a touch sensitive screen? You can zoom in and out of images. You can scroll through images. You can control the 35-point auto-focus. You can release the shutter. Oh, and you can access the Live Guide – the PEN’s little take-photos assistant – through the touch screen, too. Excellent. And?

Two thumb wheels on the back of the camera will allow you to control your exposure without having to flick through menus. That’s rather groovy. Anything else?

It’s got ten different art filters. Just about every camera on the market has those now. Okay.

Olympus has crammed the brand new TruePic VI engine in there, it’s got a sensitivity range that goes up to ISO 12,800, there’s a 12.3mp sensor, and it makes HD video (1080i, 60fps). And don’t forget the 3D stills capability. Actually, I’d rather forget that. Nevermind.

It’ll be available from August this year, in black, white, or silver, with a 14-42mm kits lens.

E-PL3

This is the PEN-lite. It really does have quite a few of the features of its bigger sister – for example the same processor, the same auto-focusing system, same number of megapixels (12.3), and Live Guide – but rather than having a touch-screen, it has a tilting screen; its video capability isn’t quite as zippy; and it only has a choice of six art filters, rather than ten.

It’s far more atrractive, I think, than the PEN, and comes in black, white, silver, or red brushed aluminium. It’ll be available in the autumn with a 14-42mm kit lens – nothing more specific than that – and there’s no indication of price.

E-PM1

The battle for the smallest interchangeable lens camera is positively vicious right now. The PEN-mini is the latest camera to wear this crown, having resided with the Pentax Q for just a week. At least they’ve stopped fighting over megapixels, I suppose.

Anyway, the Olympus marketing dudes have described this camera as sexy (I kid you not) and whilst I admit that it is cute, I’m not sure that I’d go so far as to say sexy. In fact, I don’t think I’m especially disposed to describing any camera as sexy. But it does come in black, white, silver, dark brown, purple, and silver rose. (Silver rose? What is it with the odd colour descriptions. Even my brother the fashionista doesn’t use such crazy terms.)

Now that we’ve established that it is both dinky and attractive, what can it do?

It has the TruePic VI processor, the 35 point FAST auto-focusing system, Live Guide, same pixel count, and same sensitivity as its big sisters. Like the Mini, it has six art filters and full HD video.

It doesn’t have a built-in flash, but it does come supplied with a tiltable external flash. It has a fastest shutter speed of 1/4000th second and can manage 5 frames per second sequential shooting.

I can’t help but feel that some of the portability element has been lost by having to use an external flash, but at 110x64x34mm (and I rounded-up there) and 216g, this really is compact meets interchangeable lens camera. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

If any of these sound as if they might just be floating your photographic boat, Olympus has even more detail. Except for price. And more specific availability dates.