GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

LAS VEGAS — Olympus has announced the rather hot-looking XZ1, and enthusiast compact camera which 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 (1.8 at 28mm rising to a still great 2.5 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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The lens is the most important part of your camera. It controls everything about the light that hits the sensor short of the length of the shutter speed. It is much better to put a great lens on a cheap camera than the other way around, something which goes frustratingly unheeded: just check a few photo forums to see people sticking crappy kit lenses onto Nikon D700s and Canon 5D MkIIs.

That’s not to say that Samyang’s range of lenses for Samsung’s mirrorless NX-series are bad. Without testing we won’t know for sure, but experience says that own-brand lenses are best, followed by those from top-tier third party makers like Sigma.

Three lenses are being ported to the Samsung mount. An 8mm 3.5, a 14mm 2.8 and an 85mm 1.4. Of these, the 8mm would seem to be the most interesting. It will come in at around 12mm (35mm equivalent) on the NX APS-C sensor, and usually the main point with a fisheye is impact rather than absolute quality. The price has not yet been announced but the lens can be had for as little as $350 in other mounts.

The 85mm, on the other hand, is a flat-out portrait lens and goes for around $400. In this case, quality needs to be high. If Samyang manages this, then the 1.4 lens will be an absolute bargain.

Tempted? Think twice. There is one huge drawback when using the lenses on a modern camera: No autofocus. This will probably be fine for the fisheye, but try that with the insanely shallow depth-of-field that an 85mm 1.4 will give you and you’ll learn a thing or two about manual focussing and just how wobbly your hands really are.

Product page [Samyang via BJP]

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