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. They all hold a special place in the history of cameras. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting prime lenses from the Zuiko SLR line, and some of the Stylus film lineup. Most prominently a 1.8 aperture Zuiko lens and a dedicated low light mode. The Olympus XZ-1 floats to the top of a sea of compacts exceeding most expectations!Ī few features of the camera caught my attention out of the box. Furthermore it means the XZ-1 should give greater control over depth-of-field than a Micro Four Thirds kit lens, since they tend to offer 7.5mm at 84mm equivalent.Īll-in-all, it means the XZ-1 offers similar control over depth-of-field and a more flexible focal length range than most DSLRs or mirrorless cameras with their kit lenses, making it a competitive alternative unless you plan to buy additional lenses.Reviewing a ten-year-old camera isn’t easy, you can’t compare it to something modern, and 2010 was a period of drastic change in the camera market. It means the XZ-1 should give at least as blurred a background and do so at something much closer to the traditional portrait focal length. In this instance, at the long end of its zoom, the XZ-1 has an aperture with a diameter of 9.6mm at 112mm equivalent, which compares favorably to the 9.8mm maximum aperture at the 83mm equivalent of a typical APS-C 18-55 F3.5-5.6 kit lens. It's sometimes hard to work out how much or little depth-of-field a lens will produce, thanks to differing sensor sizes (and the unclear manner in which they are often designated), but the key factors are the physical size of the aperture and the angle-of-view. It also allows a surprising degree of control over depth-of-field.

The super-bright F1.8-2.5 lens does more than let you keep the ISO settings down in low light. Built-in flash, hotshoe and remote flash control.720p movie mode (30 fps in Motion JPEG format).Large 3.0' 621k (VGA equivalent) OLED display.New TruPic V processor (as used in the company's PEN series).Twin control dials, including one around the lens.The top-down view emphasizes the dimensional differences between the three cameras and also shows the flash hot shoe. It's about the same size as Samsung's EX1/TL 500, making it much more conveniently sized than the larger Canon G12 or Nikon P7000. It's hard to imagine what else Olympus could have fitted into the XZ-1's attractive metal-fronted body.įrom the front it's clear that the XZ-1 is slightly larger than the two smallest enthusiast compacts (the Panasonic LX5 and Canon S95). Other high-end highlights include a flash hot shoe and the ability to wirelessly control off-board flashguns. To this it adds two control dials (including an S90-style dial around the lens) and a bright, high-resolution OLED screen. The i.Zuiko lens is F1.8 at the 28mm equivalent end and a still very impressive F2.5 at the 112mm setting.īut the spec doesn't end at the lens - the XZ-1 is built around a high sensitivity 1/1.63' CCD which, along with its peers, makes it one of the larger sensors to appear in a compact camera with a built-in lens. And it's clear why the company would want to draw attention to the optics, having created the brightest zoom lens of any current compact while still offering a truly useful range. There's a bright lens, of course, with the XZ-1 becoming the first of the company's compacts to ever wear its respected 'Zuiko' designation. The result of this study is an enthusiast compact that takes the best elements of its rivals and synthesizes them into a very attractive package. With the launch of the XZ-1 it becomes apparent that Olympus hasn't been sitting idly by - instead it has clearly been watching the sector very closely and has studied the available cameras keenly. Sadly, as the years have gone on and prices have dropped, Olympus moved away from this part of the market and it's been a long time since we looked to it for class-leading compacts.ĭespite the falling price of entry-level DSLRs and the arrival of their more compact mirrorless competitors, the enthusiast compact sector has seen a resurgence, with Samsung and Nikon weighing-in and Canon going as far as bringing a second model to the melee (the S90 revived the PowerShot 'S' series to sit alongside the company's stalwart G series). Back in 2001, when it was possible to charge $999 for a compact camera, Olympus produced the C-3040Z, C-4040Z and C5050Z which featured some of the brightest zooms to ever appear on such cameras.

Olympus z1