Posts Tagged news

My first 35mm camera, An Olympus Pen EE-S

One of my first cameras as a teen was a wonderful Olympus Pen (model EES) 1/2 frame camera.  With a roll of 36exp I could get 72 frames (but normally I would squeeze a few more on the end of the roll!).  I used to play around with film & developer combinations – I was a big fan of Agfapan 400 B/W and Kodak Tri-X B/W and loved Agfa’s Atomal and Rodinal developers.  I can smell those chemicals just thinking about it…. Ahhh memories!

The Pen camera is widely regarded as one of the most influential cameras ever made and for the lucky people who owned one of these I’m sure they’ll understand.

Anyway, Olympus are banking on this love of the marque as they introduce a new digital Pen.  And it looks absolutely FANTASTIC!  It is still unannounced but here is a spy pic of the top of the upcoming model and some specs.  It uses the Micro Four Thirds format which allows it to use interchangeable lenses and the 4:3 aspect ration.  The sensor is also much larger than that of other compact digital cameras (5-9 x the size) giving much higher image quality and much better control over depth of field.

The new 'digital' Pen

Olympus Pen E-P1 - Micro Four Thirds
Possible specs
12 Megapixel, 100-3200 ISO, Body IS, 3.0 LCD (no swivel) with new improved liveview (IS will work while you use the liveview), Same autofocus as the Panasonic G1, Video 720p, 2 models, one in silver-black, one beige, thicker than the G10 or DP2, 17mm 2.8 lens and 14-42 kit lens

UPDATE – A new pic of the camera is out (July 15, 2009)