Olympus has announced their SZ-30MR – an interesting 24x optical super zoom compact camera with a few new features which I suspect will be incorporated into the next Oympus Micro Four Thirds body.
Dual TruePic III+ image processing engines:
- multi-recording – records full-resolution, 1080p HD video and 16-megapixel stills at the same time.
- record two different movies at once:
- in wide-angle and close-up ( presumably via digital zoom)
- full HD and lower resolution, or
- original and filtered (using one of the SZ-30MR’s seven Magic Filters for movies)
1080p HD video
- most current Olympus cameras are not full 1080p HD
9 frames per second in full 16-megapixel resolution:
- this presumably needs a global sensor to do 9fps using an electronic shutter
- Micro Four Thirds users are eagerly awaiting this technology to make its way to them, but I would be surprised if it does this year.
New Art Filters:
- Watercolor — transform your images with a finish like that of watercolor paintings;
- Sparkle** — shoot photos with the luxurious feel of twinkling lights;
- Punk — create two-tone images full of rock-and-roll spirit
3D still image creation via panning:
- automatically produces an industry standard .mpo image file
Smart panorama mode:
- automatic panoramic stitching while just panning the camera
Beauty mode:
- automatic applies filter to smooth skin
- also a manual in-camera blemish removal tool
Eye-Fi SD card compatibility:
- allows immediate upload of image file via WiFi to a computer.
