Olympus VG-120 Preview

At less than an inch deep, the new Olympus VG-120 is an affordable, pocket-friendly point-and-shoot digital camera featuring a 14-megapixel sensor, a 5x optical zoom on a 26mm wide angle lens, 720p HD video recording (30 frames per second), a 3.0" LCD viewing screen, Digital Image Stabilization, AF Tracking, and Olympus' "shot-enhancing" Magic Art Filters, which are stylized camera settings designed to recreate computer photo editing software filters.

There are two new Magic Art Filters for this model year: Sparkle (which adds "luxurious twinkling lights to photos) and Punk (two tone images).  Legacy filters such as Pop Art (saturated colors), Pin Hole (reduces peripheral brightness), Fish-Eye (like being in a 1990s rap video), Soft Focus (encloses foregrounds in gentle, pastel colors), and Drawing (turns images into sketch outlines for kids to color in) also remain standard.

For times when your pictures are less than perfect, the Olympus VG-120 includes in-camera editing software to touch up, among other potential problems, red-eyes and under exposed areas.  Fast-action shots are a breeze thanks to AF Tracking technology, which locks onto moving subjects to continuously adjust focus and brightness.  And for those who want the camera to do the thinking for them, the Olympus VG-120 includes Auto Intelligent Mode to automatically adjust camera settings to various scenarios (Portrait, Night + Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Macro, etc).

Olympus VG-120 features include:

• 14-megapixels
• 5x optical zoom (26 - 130mm equivalent in 35mm photography)
• Aperture: f2.8 (W) / f6.5 (T)
• 3.0" LCD 230K dot
• 25 Shooting Modes, including Intelligent Auto
• Magic Filters (Pop Art, Pinhole, Fisheye, Drawing, Soft Focus, Punk, Sparkle)
• Panorama: PC Panorama (Up to 10 frames automatically stitchable with ib software)
• Sequential Shooting: Approx. 0.8 fps / 200 images (14M); Approx. 2.3 fps / 200 images (3M); Approx. 10.0 fps / 20 images (3M)
• Internal Memory: 49MB

The Olympus VG-120 will be available in silver, black, or red this January for around $139.  It will ship with a Lithium Ion Battery, USB Cable, Audio/Video Cable, Wrist Strap, Instruction Manual, Warranty Card and OLYMPUS software.