Olympus outs a compact for people who don’t like lenses

Not everyone wants an interchangeable lens camera, and we’ll admit there are times when a compact is a little easier to take out and use. For that, Olympus has a new camera ready, and it even looks like an interchangeable just to make you stand out more.

Announced out of the blue, Olympus is ready for people hitting the road with the SH-2, a travel compact with the look of a PEN camera and a lens that will take people from the wide angle of 25mm to the very, very close of 600mm.

olympus-sh-2-release-2015-01

More than just another ultra-zoom compact, Olympus is throwing in a few features that will stand out to people who like to work with their cameras, such as RAW format capture, support for manual exposures, live composite mode for night-time shooting, a macro mode, and an image stabilisation system taken right out of the Olympus OM-D series, with 5-axis Hybrid IS to help produce stable images and videos.

For the sensor, Olympus is relying on a 16 megapixel sensor, and you’ll find the TruePic VII engine enhancing the colour and quality.

olympus-sh-2-release-2015-06

Low-light sensitivity is catered for with ISO 125 to 6400, art filters are here, a 3 inch touchscreen LCD is used for controlling the camera, and even WiFi, with the Olympus OI.Share app for iPhone and Android letting phones and tablets transfer photos and videos wirelessly and capture images from afar.

olympus-sh-2-release-2015-05

Pricing for the Olympus SH-2 hasn’t yet been announced, but we’re told it will be here shortly, with availability sometime this month. We’ll have more on this as Olympus tells us.