Olympus readies 7X zoom Stylus, new FEs

Olympus on Tuesday gave a preview of updates to its camera lines ahead of Photokina with European announcements of cameras that should appear in the US. The µ[mju:] 1060 (Stylus 1060 in the US) is unusually long-ranged and boasts a 7X zoom, 37-260mm equivalent lens that helps compose distant landscape shots. Both hardware- and software-based image stabilization keep the resulting 10-megapixel images steady and are backed by a very high-speed mode that shoots at nine frames per second in exchange for lower-resolution three-megapixel shots.

The 1060 accepts either xD PictureCard or microSD cards for storage and will be available in the UK and Europe for £260 ($485) as of September; a US release date hasn't been publicized but should follow soon.

Two new FE series cameras have also been added for the budget minded and beginners. The eight-megapixel FE-370 is closer to some higher-end cameras with 5X zoom (36-108mm), hardware image stabilization and full scene auto-adjustment. An entry FE-360 model drops to 3X zoom, software-only stabilization and a limitation to scene presets. Olympus delivers both to the UK and Europe in September at costs of £130 ($242) for the FE-360 and £180 ($336) for the FE-370. [via DP Review]

µ[mju:] (Stylus) 1060

FE-370