Olympus Imaging Corp announced the "Olympus Air A01" lens-interchangeable camera using the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) system Feb 15, 2015.
It looks like the lens mount of a mirrorless camera and is operated with a smartphone. Olympus Imaging will start to sell the camera exclusively on its online shopping site March 6, 2015. The price of the "body" (mount) is ¥36,504 (approx US$308, including tax). A set of the body and a 14-42mm lens unit (F value: 3.5-5.6) is priced at ¥53,784. The company plans to produce the camera at a rate of 1,000 units per month.
The new camera is the first product to be released for the "OPC Hack & Make Project," which Olympus Corp announced in September 2014. The most distinguishing feature of the camera is that users can freely develop accessories and applications for controlling the camera.
Olympus Imaging will offer 3D data on the outer shape and SDKs (software development kits) for Android OS and iOS for free. Also, it plans to regularly host events for users who develop accessories and applications in the aim of forming a community of developers.
For the new camera, Olympus Imaging will provide eight smartphone applications including "OA.Genius," which makes it easy to take photos, "OA.ModeDial," which enables to manually adjust shutter speed and aperture, and "OA.ArtFilter," which provides 23 kinds of filters. In addition to those applications, by using smartphone applications developed with the SDKs, it becomes possible to use the new camera in various ways, the company said.
The camera measures 56.9 x 57.1 x 43.6mm, and its mass is about 147g (body). It is equipped with a 16.05-Mpixel 4/3-inch "Live MOS Sensor." Its sensitivity, shutter speed and continuous shooting speed are ISO200-12,800, 1/16,000-4 seconds and about 10fps (frames per second), respectively. The recording formats for still images are JPEG and RAW, and the format for videos is MPEG-4AVC/H.264 (up to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels/30fps). The camera has an electronic image stabilization function. It supports microSD memory cards as recording media.
When its built-in lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable battery is fully charged, the camera can take about 320 images. The battery is charged via a microUSB port.
Prior to the commercialization of the camera, Olympus Imaging lent a prototype of the product to some developers for free. This time, as results of the lending, the company showed (1) a system that moves the camera on a rail for shooting, (2) system to be installed in a tourist resort for taking commemorative pictures, (3) system to be attached to a human body for taking selfies, (4) suction pad- and block-like attachments to be attached to the back side of the camera"s body, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment