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Olympus Pen teaser

etrigan63

Active member
I've been tracking this and the rumor mills place the actual launch of the Olympus PEN G Digital at June 15.
 
R

Ranger 9

Guest
I've been tracking this and the rumor mills place the actual launch of the Olympus PEN G Digital at June 15.
If they continue to update the teaser every two days, there are 12 day-pairs between May 24 and June 15 (Monday) inclusive.

There are 19 compact Pen models and four F-series SLR models, but some are fairly obscure variants such as the Pen F microscope camera and the ones for Agfa Rapid cassettes, and others are very similar to each other except for minor features. The way I'd count, there are eight basic series:

-- Original Pen
-- Pen S (f/2.8 model and f/3.5 model)
-- Pen D (faster lens, wider shutter speed range)
-- Pen W (black finish, 25mm lens)
-- Pen EM (motorized; troublesome, so they might skip it)
-- Pen EE series (auto exposure)
-- Pen F SLR
-- Pen FV/FT SLR (same camera except FT has dorky TTL meter)

That means that if they update the teaser with a new model every two days, they would run out of vintage Pen models on Sunday, June 7. So maybe by then they'll be ready to stop teasing...
 

Diane B

New member
I just happened to hover my pen (Wacom) over where it says 'next update May 26th' and it says 'next update June 16, 2009'---significant?

Diane
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I did not bother to look. I will see if they manage to come with a working model one of these days.

Olympus: save the curtains and the tobacco tin mock-ups.
 

Diane B

New member
Having been through the mockups before (waiting after the E20 for 'whatever') that resulted in me leaving Oly, I think they do the strangest things--the curtains at PMA, the orange fabric insert mockup (the tobacco tin) and now these. Its annoying--at least to me--rather than 'teasing'. Still--I'm curious as to what they WILL finally do--primarily for lenses rather than the camera body that I suspect won't tempt me this go round.

Diane
 
R

Ranger 9

Guest
OK the first was cute but the spacing leaves room for 5 installments which is annoying.
It looks as if they're following the Pen model breakdown on their Pen history page, which includes seven model groups... so conceivably they could stretch it out even longer. (The bar under the media player could become a scroller to allow more teases.)

I also want to point out that, even though the collective wishful thinking of the photo-forum community has ordained that Olympus will introduce a tiny but feature-packed "digital Pen FT" type of camera, so far their campaign has been giving lots of loving attention to the minimal, feature-sparse scale-focusing Pens. For example, today's feature camera, the Pen EE, had a fixed 1/60 sec shutter speed and three-zone focusing!

If that's the design philosophy that Olympus plans to follow (which would make a lot of sense as a way of differentiating their offerings from those of Panasonic) then a lot of gadget freaks are going to be disappointed...
 

jonoslack

Active member
Mmm - nice to look at I think, although most of us don't really like being 'teased'.

What really impresses me about Olympus is that they do seem to be able to keep a secret - everything else seems to be leaked out before the launch, there must be some terrible threats:talk028:

Incidentally, I thought the orange inserts on the tobacco tin were leather not fabric (FWIW - not much I guess)

Still, I think we know pretty much what we're going to get - here's my take:

1. camera about the same size as Canon G10 (possibly a little larger)
2. LCD and no EVF
3. no popup flash
4. some kind of viewfinder attachment - possibly electronically connected
5. retro look
6. around 5 lenses - including zooms and primes
7. in body IS (same as E620)
8. same sensor as E620
9. video (but not 1080p)

but of course, this might be disinformation, and I can think of both an absolute wondercamera and a complete lemon which would fit these criteria.
 

Diane B

New member
Incidentally, I thought the orange inserts on the tobacco tin were leather not fabric (FWIW - not much I guess)

Still, I think we know pretty much what we're going to get - here's my take:

1. camera about the same size as Canon G10 (possibly a little larger)
2. LCD and no EVF
3. no popup flash
4. some kind of viewfinder attachment - possibly electronically connected
5. retro look
6. around 5 lenses - including zooms and primes
7. in body IS (same as E620)
8. same sensor as E620
9. video (but not 1080p)

but of course, this might be disinformation, and I can think of both an absolute wondercamera and a complete lemon which would fit these criteria.
Yes, I think so too about the leather vs. fabric even though I mentioned fabric. It had been phrased that way on a discussion about the camera on rangefinders I think---and I noticed that the EE has a similar insert (though not as bright).

I suspect you are close to right Jono. It would make sense with all their hints and the 'other' m4/3rds--which they need to differentiate themselves from to go with a G10 sized one. I would think they would be making a mistake not to have at least an EVF as an accessory though. I would not like to try and focus, esp. MF, with just an LCD and interchangeable lenses.

Diane
 

jonoslack

Active member
Yes, I think so too about the leather vs. fabric even though I mentioned fabric. It had been phrased that way on a discussion about the camera on rangefinders I think---and I noticed that the EE has a similar insert (though not as bright).

I suspect you are close to right Jono. It would make sense with all their hints and the 'other' m4/3rds--which they need to differentiate themselves from to go with a G10 sized one. I would think they would be making a mistake not to have at least an EVF as an accessory though. I would not like to try and focus, esp. MF, with just an LCD and interchangeable lenses.

Diane
Well, having done manual focusing on the live view on the E3, and with the promise of a much improved LCD I'm not so sure that it'd be difficult.

Still - ricoh did a plug in EVF on their cameras (horrid though it was), so that's a possibility. What I'd like is a bright viewfinder with a fixed focal length (like a leica) but with framelines which zoomed with the lens, and with focus confirmation and exposure information . . . but I think I'm just dreaming here.
 

woodmancy

Subscriber Member
Well, having done manual focusing on the live view on the E3, and with the promise of a much improved LCD I'm not so sure that it'd be difficult.

Still - ricoh did a plug in EVF on their cameras (horrid though it was . . .

I have Ricoh GX-100 and GX-200 and cannot work without the EVF - lots of reasons but here are two:

LCD gets washed out in sun . .

I need to see the histogram live as I take the picture.

Not horrid at all - if you don't like it, just remove it. Can't do that with the G1, but I don't want to :) . . . . I wish my Dlux-4 had one.

Keith
 

Brian Mosley

New member
I hope they use the GH1 sensor...

GH1 + Lumix 14-140
1/800s f/5.6 at 58.0mm


100% pixel crop, top left corner :


Kind Regards

Brian
 

johnastovall

Deceased, but remembered fondly here...
It looks as if they're following the Pen model breakdown on their Pen history page, which includes seven model groups... so conceivably they could stretch it out even longer. (The bar under the media player could become a scroller to allow more teases.)

I also want to point out that, even though the collective wishful thinking of the photo-forum community has ordained that Olympus will introduce a tiny but feature-packed "digital Pen FT" type of camera, so far their campaign has been giving lots of loving attention to the minimal, feature-sparse scale-focusing Pens. For example, today's feature camera, the Pen EE, had a fixed 1/60 sec shutter speed and three-zone focusing!

If that's the design philosophy that Olympus plans to follow (which would make a lot of sense as a way of differentiating their offerings from those of Panasonic) then a lot of gadget freaks are going to be disappointed...
I'm not a gadget freak but as a photographer any thing less than a direct evolution of the PEN F is going to be not just a disappointment but a failure by Olympus.
 
R

Ranger 9

Guest
I hope they use the GH1 sensor...

GH1 + Lumix 14-140
1/800s f/5.6 at 58.0mm
Brian -- ISO 200, I presume?

Any comment on performance at higher ISOs? Panasonic was claiming enhanced high-ISO performance vs. the G1, but in the only review I've seen mentioning it (on C*Net, which isn't exactly a photography site) the reviewer said she thought the G1's high-ISO images looked better...
 
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