Olympus E-450 gives you a camera and two interchangeable lenses for under $700
By Emily Price
Over the past few years we’ve seen the price of digital SLR’s drop little by little, now putting them well within the reach of many average consumers. The Olympus E-450 is a new Micro Four Thirds camera that gives users not only camera body, but also two interchangeable lenses for under $700.
Micro Four Thirds cameras are for the most part very similar to SLRs. The cameras eliminate the reflex mirror box that makes an SLR an SLR and instead work on a similar technology to typical point and shoot digital cameras that use a LiveView on the camera’s LCD to frame their shots rather than a traditional viewfinder. Eliminating the mirror system allows the camera bodies to in turn be smaller and easier to carry around.
The Olympus E-450 is a 10-megapixel camera with an ISO range from 100 to 1600 the ability to hold both xD-Picture cards and CompactFlash cards, and 28 shooting modes including 18 select scene modes, 5 exposure modes, and 5 creative modes. The camera is very similar to its processor the Olympus E-420, but adds three art filters (Pop Art, Pin Hole, and Soft Focus), the ability to shoot eight RAW files instead of sic at a time in continuous mode, and a new TruePic III+ processor.
In a unique move, Olympus has decided to offer the camera first on QVC starting May 9. The camera is expected to be packaged with both the ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 and ED 40-150mm f4.0/5.6 Zuiko zoom lenses for a price tag of only $699, which is pretty low for an SLR body alone, much less one with two interchangeable lenses.
What do you think about the Micro Four Thirds cameras? The small size and small price of the E-450 definitely makes it an attractive option for amateur photographers. Would you consider buying one?
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April 1st, 2009
Emily,
Given the date and time of your post, perhaps I’m falling victim to an April Fool’s Day joke. Nonetheless, correction is warranted for those researching camera models formats.
There’s a critical – and fundamental – flaw in your post above: the E-450 is not a micro four thirds camera. Although physically smaller than many competing cameras, the E-450 is a four thirds dslr.
The only micro four thirds camera released to-date is the Panasonic G1, with the follow-up GH1 to be released shortly. Olympus has revealed a concept micro four thirds camera but nothing else.