Olympus XZ-1

Olympus XZ-1, very bright and large optical sensor on the menu, Olympus invited in the compact arena experts. Programme: RAW file, large sensor, F1.8 optical and manual modes.





A year ago, if we wanted a compact camera expert, the choice was practically limited to Canon PowerShot G11 with her (read review) and the Panasonic LX3 (read test). Meanwhile, the changing of these two aircraft have arrived (the PowerShot G12 and Lumix DMC LX5) but also new competitors: the Coolpix P7000 Digital Camera (read review) and very good Samsung EX-1 (read review) . A fifth thief starts today in the competition: the Olympus XZ-1, a case that relies on its big brothers the Pen (Pen, whose newly announced E-PL2).

Very bright and large optical sensor

For this expert compact, Olympus sees the big picture: a very bright light - F1.8 at wide angle and F2.5 at telephoto! - Covering a broad optical range for this type of CCD camera and a wider than those used by competitors to obtain good results in low light. Olympus prides itself as having given birth to a "king of the night" and displays up to 6400 ISO on the meter: we will see during the test if the optician Japanese managed to grow into what it is most lacking, c that is to say, the processing software.

Ten megapixels are enough

Canon is the first who initiated the movement with its G11: if the XZ-1 is at the forefront, he embarks "only" 10 megapixels, an announcement that delights us because it ensures better results in situations faint and a file size well enough for prints up to 20 x 30 cm, or slightly beyond.

The legacy Pen

If there is a compact, traditional and non-interchangeable lenses, as are the Pen, the XZ-1 has the same type of jack on the accessory shoe and is thus compatible with accessories such as Pen-NET 2, without a doubt one of the best electronic viewfinders market, or the flash of light and other systems (see the announcement of the Pen E-PL2).

The display of vengeance

Whether for the Pen or other compact, Olympus had hitherto been silent on the screen quality, preferring LCD TFT medium quality to keep prices low. A trend that is changing: the XZ-1 will be equipped with an OLED screen of 610 000 points, one of the best resolutions of its kind - only surpassed by the GRD-III Ricoh finer but less bright and contrasting as TFT and OLED not .

Video: the minimum acceptable

On the video side, Olympus provides the minimum acceptable today, namely a mode HD 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) encoded and encapsulated in an MJPEG AVI file. The AVCHD had been top but it seems that Olympus does not want to hear about this codec - a question of technique or royalties?

In all cases, this does not detract from the attractiveness that we can have for XZ-1, with its extremely bright light, its large sensor, its manual modes and RAW file handling. Only the price of $ 449 is holding us back a bit ...