The Olympus Air. image courtesy:DC.watch
Along the E-M5II Olympus announced also the Air Clip MFT camera! it’s going to be sold in Japan only (for now). First real hands-on pictures can be found on that Engadget gallery (Click here) and at DC.watch (Click here). There is also an official video here:
The big question to you is:
[poll id=”271″]
The Air Clip specs are:
– 16 MP MFT sensor
– MFT mount
– 81-point AF system
– 10fps
– electrnic shutter with speed up to 1/16000s
– has physical shutter release button and tripod mount
– microSD slot and lithium-ion battery
– microUSB
– Air Clip control via Wifi from a mobile device.
– Art filter support
– Bluetooth
– Come with Open Source Api
– To be released in Spring in Japan
– 56.9 × 57.1 × 43.6mm. Weight about 146g (without memory card, battery built-in).
– Comes in Black or White
– Price: 33,800 yen for the body and with kit lens 14-42mm EZ 49,800 yen.
Image source: Olympus Japan.
New Olympus stuff preorders:
E-M5II in Black or Silver at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. In Europe at Jessops, WexUK, Namencolor.
14-150mm II lens at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
FL-LM3 Flash at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus ECG-2 External Metal Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus HLD-6P Battery Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8g at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-P16 eyecup at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8G and HLD-6P kit at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Full leather case at Amazon, Adorama and GetOlympus.
Olympus PT-EP13 Underwater Housing at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus Stylus Tough TG-860 at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
32 Responses
I want black and quickly.
The in interesting part is that is better almost than E-M1 now. Those who don’t require good grip but just image quality, can get this to beat E-M1 quality.
The Ad was little strange/odd but seems to be OK.
it has just an electric shutter so movement can get a little funky + worse DR
Sometimes you need a good handling to get a good quality picture. I doubt it can be considered an alternative to the Em1.
I see it more as a helpful add on, for example taking wide angle pictures during a backstage or portrait session.
I hope new apps and interest will make it to European shops too.
I think it’s quite premature to say this can “beat E-M1 quality”, considering nobody’s actually used it yet.
no 5-Axis IS?……
I was thinking the same.
No IS at all it seems 🙁 I’m not expecting the latest and greatest 5-axis IS in a product like this, but 3-axis would have made quite a difference IMO. Esp. considering that this will be more difficult to stabilise like a regular camera (where you can press the viewfinder to your head, bracing your arms to your chest).
Much more interesting than the Sony QX thingies, but I’ll wait for the 2.0 version.
No. This is just another attempt to get people to up-grade from a Smart-Phone to a camera.
I want an iPhone in my pocket, and a REAL camera in my camera bag.
But I think this is much more pocket-able than a 4/3 camera, and I don’t always like to have a bag, as they say the best camera is the camera you have with you. I just hope they support Blackberry or plain Android and not Google’s App store version of Android only.
Dose it have a Timelapse Funktion?
There will probably an App for that.
This is a very interesting product, more interesting then the Sony iteration. Olympus made it for opensource software, meaning the use of this can be limitless. The shrunken mind photogs here don’t get that, that’s why it get so much negative feedback here and on dpr.
It can be used as a surveillance camera or you can take it to a social event and set it up somewhere on a motorized movable platform and give multiple people access to it, so they can make snapshots when they want. Just a few example I would use it for. Man the the possibilities are endless if only people would think out of the box. And I’m just an old fart.
But like I said most here are rusty young and old gearheads.
From the limited information available, the API is actually very limited, so you probably can’t do much more with it than with Sony QX. And maybe it’s even worse, because QX supports third party apps, and those seem to have access to a much more powerful camera API. The difference is that the Sony apps ecosystem is not open, while the Olympus is (or is supposed to be).
Also, the camera has USB port, but it seems the interfacing goes through WiFi. Not ideal if you’d like to pair it with Raspberry Pi or something like that.
The potential in such a camera with powerful and fully open API would be huge. This could be a huge deal for people with disabilities, as it would allow for building very customized cameras very cheaply (3d printing and such).
But for all we know, this is not it. It looks more like Sony’s QX, in that it’s more a smartphone accessory, than a serious imaging device for makers/builders. Maybe next iteration.
And if anyone has any information on what the API and interfacing is like and what are the capabilities, share it. I’m really curious what could be done with it.
Overall +1.
We want really open api (incl. low level functions).
Same control with wifi and USB.
Same control other Air Clip and classical bodies :-p
Main problem is when opening APIs too much is that when it breaks due to unforeseen combinations of settings, the manufacturer is liable for the warranty, and every return they get means less profit and bad reputation. But if the user is willing to waiver their warranty e.g. jail-breaking the product then Olympus can say that these specific combinations were not tested for and you broke it so you gotta pay to get it repaired. Testing is not free even if you get free beta testers, and hardware APIs are more likely to cause permanent physical damage e.g. have a shutter speed of 2 hours with ISO 12800 will have a good chance at burning the sensor with heat. This generally applies to any bits of software but computers have safeguards which cameras don’t have as they are designed to be hacked and broken.
i buy nx500 much camera for less money–buy, will not read this side next 4 years–:)
Is panasonic presenting anything at cp+?
does it have tripod screw mount?
Battery life?
Movie capability?
Yes it looks like it does have a tripod screw mounts: It appears there are two, one on each side. (Presumably you could use some kind of 90 degree tripod adapter to adapt it to landscape.)
Looking at Google Translate of the page above:
Battery life: 320 shots CIPA standard.
Movie mode:
Full HD: 1920×1080,30p (29.97fps) 16:9 ratio
24Mbps (Fine) (max 22mins)
16Mbps (Normal) (max 29mins)
HD: 1280×720,30p (29.97fps) 16:9 ratio
12Mbps (Fine) (max 29mins)
8Mbps (Normal) (max 29mins)
Now wouldn’t it be cool if it had the new 40mp sensor shift? You could build your own film scanner around it.
That’ll be pretty awesome! Lots of cool ideas if the API is done right.
I would love this product, with the right software. It’d be so fun to set up custom filters in an app, then use them in camera live view. Can later tweak the filter, and continue taking pictures or apply the filter to photos already taken. I’d love the integration of image-editing and taking photos. This is what smartphone photographers want and currently can’t get.
Even better: the airclip to physically connect to a camera grip with some physical controls (shutter button, couple of clicky control dials). The phone (or maybe your 2nd phone for serious photographers) clips on to the back.
Forget tiny camera LCDs – I look forward to using a glorious 5 inch 1080 LCD viewfinder of my phone screen.
Wow, so many opportunities for improvement over traditional cameras. I’ll never again have the faff of downloading photos or transferring to my phone so I can actually show my friends in person or send to them.
Having said this I’m a little cautious about whether the apps are going to be slick enough – it really needs the very best UI. And not to mention storage limitations – really need a 128gb phone for this to work really well (why did Google cripple android’s micro SD support??)
Is there actually a single person physically at this trade fair? I’d be most grateful if said trade show visitor actually asks Olympus a whole load of questions about this product. And post answers here or somewhere on the web. Because right now we basically only have the ‘press release’ info. Thx,
I did not see if it shoots RAW? Issue I see is all of the MFT community already has smaller easy to carry cameras and camera bodies. Would a Panny GX7/GX1 or Olyl Pen/EM10/EM5 used give up existing gear for the mobile phone camera? Can Oly move the mobil phone market? Kudos for innovative thinking.
Some good ideas to make an action camera with plenty of space for creativity, no?
The end of action hero?…
Anybody knows if there is external power plug enabled even during recording?
Was the Sony version so successful that Olympus thinks it can profit from the same space?
I thought it had been a flop?
Sony has a track record of coming up with good ideas that are flops because they either lock it down to their specific technology or make it way overpriced. If Olympus can make this affordably, and uses an open API to allow people to talk to it via other apps I think it could be pretty sweet. Plus any of us who already have m43 lenses can put them on and go.
That ad is awful! I was going to vote Don’t know yet, but went with No after watching it hehe. I got even more confused, what is this supposed to be, another camera for selphies? I don’t think it shows the potential of the product. I don’t think that was the initial purpose for its creation anyway, but then again maybe I am wrong….
Im thinking it would be great for a time lapse stuff. Also and it runs through android/ios: I often wish that some of the photo apps available out there could be connected to my m4/3 glass.
Come on Olympus, two of ur partners produces smartphones that are superior to Apple-phones, and yet to choose to use an outdated Iphone in ur advertisement?
Imagine the video potential, with open source! 4/3 sensor combined with the upcoming Voigtlander 10mm f0.95 or Olympus fisheye will be the filmmakers gopro killer!!!
Sign me up!