Olympus Announces New C-2000Z2.11 Megapixel

MELVILLE, N.Y., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Olympus America Inc., Digital & Imaging Systems Group, today announced the C-2000 Zoom 2.1 megapixel zoom lens filmless digital camera. The C-2000 Zoom boasts a resolution (1600 x 1200), 3X optical zoom lens, infrared remote with fully automatic controls for novice users and powerful manual controls any photo enthusiast would appreciate. All this is packaged in a compact ergonomically designed point & shoot body.

The C-2000 Zoom has an all-glass aspherical 3X zoom assembly. Featuring both fully automatic and manual modes of most all selections. It even offers the choice of 100, 200 or 400 ISO film speed equivalency. Its new colorful menu structure further enhances the end user experience. Beautifully designed with the consumer in mind, the camera is lightweight at 10.7 ounces and very compact with dimensions of 4.2" wide x 2.9" high x 2.6" deep.

The shutter speed is determined in either an automatic or manual mode at 1/2-1/800 second and additional accessory lenses can be added by attaching to the external threaded mount. The camera also features a built-in, intelligent 4-mode flash with red-eye reduction, force-fill flash, automatic low-light and back-light mode, and force-off to accommodate most all lighting conditions. External lighting can be synchronized to the camera to further extend its use and function. There is even a slow synchronization mode for use with manually selected shutter speeds. The flash can be fired at the beginning or end of an exposure allowing the user much creative license.

The fully automatic center weighted matrix metering system can be manually overridden with a spot meter and/or further manually controlled with +/- 2 EV step control in 1/3 increments. The shutter preferred mode allows the user to control exposure length. It also features both auto and manual white balance, autofocus with both pre-focus and quick-focus options.

The C-2000 Zoom even comes equipped with a remote control which allows the user to select and activate many picture taking choices at distance. (Hurray! Somebody finally listened to me about this!!!!!)

The C-2000 Zoom provides five levels of recording images (with two for standard quality): Standard Quality (VGA) at 640 x 480 with standard compression JPEG files, Standard Quality (XGA) at 1024 x 768 with standard compression JPEG files; High Quality and Super High Quality JPEG files at 1600 x 1200 with standard compression and minimal compression, respectively; and Super High Quality TIFF files at 1600 x 1200 with no compression.

The Digital Telephoto can be used at any optical focal length with 1.6X, 2.0X, and 2.5X magnification. The built in 1.8-inch LCD display automatically activates when choosing the digital Tele/Wide, macro and either of the shutter or aperture preferred modes for through-the-lens composition.

The C-2000 Zoom incorporates high-speed D-RAM for internal operations. This architectural enhancement provides fast shot-to-shot performance. Secondarily, the D-RAM also allows for sequence shooting. This mode enables users to shoot and capture 5-45 images in 1/2 second intervals with variable resolutions (VGA - 45 images, XGA - 30 images, 1600 x 1200 - 5 images). Similar to that of advanced film cameras, activation is easy. Once in this mode, simply hold the shutter button down and the camera does all the work. The images are written through D-RAM (internal memory) and saved to the removable media for later review.

The C-2000 Zoom includes an 8MB Olympus brand panorama SmartMedia card, remote control, 4 AA photo-grade Alkaline batteries, lens cap, strap, serial cable for PC and Mac, video connection cable for TV or VCR, Adobe PhotoDeluxe image manipulation and creation software, Enroute Imaging QuickStitch panorama stitching software, Olympus Camedia Master Utility Software for downloading images from the camera, and instruction manuals. For a limited time, 4 free AA NiMH rechargeable batteries and recharger can be redeemed though the included coupon. The C-2000 Zoom will be available May 1999 with an expected street price of . All software supports both Windows and Macintosh computer systems.

The Imaging-Resource has just completed a review of a pre-production C-2000Z camera and has detailed pictures of the camera and its controls and etc.

The DreamArts web site has just posted some C-2000Z sample pictures. And there's more on the PC Watch site too.