Olympus Mju 790 SW: Tough as nails

Built like a tank, the previous 770 SW looked as if it was designed to withstand bullets. It was tough, heavy and just about as attractive as a silver-skinned ogre. Male geeks loved it. But because of its Incredible Hulk attributes, it hardly fits a too-chic Gucci clutch bag.

The new 790 SW, on the other hand, is a decidedly prettier offering. It's available in five colors and brings to mind comic book characters like Batgirl, Elektra and even Storm from the X-men series--sexier alter egos to the beefy superheroes.

The 790 SW is waterproof, shockproof and freeze-proof. You can take pictures underwater, throw it repeatedly from a height of 1.5m onto the floor (just like the 770 SW), freeze it into a block of ice, and it will still come out clicking. But compare it with the older 770 SW and you will find that, in a sexist fashion, the 790 SW's "powers" have been toned down.
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Snapfish tries to make photo upload a snap

We can't help the pun, but it's really finger-snapping easy.

The Singaporean flavor of the US photo sharing/printing site has announced an upload service that allows the user to email photos into Snapfish without interfacing directly with the Website. Sounds cool. But it isn't worth a thumbs-up for freshness. The megalith photo-sharing site, Flickr, had an email upload tool in hand before this.

Nikon's "my Picturetown", a Wi-Fi camera-to-Website photo upload service, goes one better by allowing the synchronization of a user's "my Picturetown" contents with a pre-selected Flickr account. That's worth a few claps.

Snapfish, now here's the deal. Give me something really innovative to write about. Like enabling printing orders to be sent along with the email upload and I will promise you a standing ovation.

Cheers,
Hopeful reviewer

Manhandling the Olympus E-3

As the old cliche goes, a picture tells a thousand words. So, more than just read about the Olympus E-3 in our hands-on, you should check out some of the photos snagged at its launch event in Tokyo.

First up is of course the opener, the President of Olympus flanked by a pair of young ladies. We somehow still find it strange to see models holding cameras because they get behind the lens, pretending to be photographers for the sake of getting photographed.


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Olympus E-3 goes official

TOKYO, Japan--Information about a new Olympus dSLR has already been going around after the company publicly displayed a prototype in March. The camera was then dubbed the E-P1, but some photos made public in August showed it bearing the name E-3.

All the speculation and leaks can now be put to rest as the Olympus E-3 has finally been officially unveiled. The E-3 is the successor to the E-1, which was first launched in 2003. It is based on the Four Thirds system and is targeted at professionals.

Most of the earlier features and specifications turned out to be correct. Some of the features of this 10.1-megapixel camera include:

• Five frames per second shooting
• Maximum shutter speed of 1/8,000 second
• 11-point autofocus
• In-camera image stabilization
• A swiveling LCD for live view image composition
• 49-zone metering system
• Built-in flash

The Four Thirds system produces photos with an aspect ratio of 4:3, which look squarer than the 3:2 aspect ratio images from 35mm film SLRs and most other digital SLRs. This system is championed by Olympus and employs the Four Thirds lens mount which supports not only its own brand lenses, but also those from Panasonic and Leica. Cameras using this system are generally lighter than competing dSLRs.

The system also has its fair share of criticism, one example being the smaller sensor size which results in more noise at higher ISOs. On the other hand, features like dust reduction and live view were first pioneered by Olympus and have now been employed in other dSLRs from Canon, Nikon and Sony.

The E-3 will be available in Singapore from November. We are still awaiting response from Olympus on the dSLR's availability throughout Asia Pacific as well as pricing details.

Face off in Malaysia

Ain't it nice? One of our featured photographers in Snapshots just had his book published.

Steven Lee loves snapping portraits and his second book is just about that. The A5 hardcover book, titled Malaysians, is filled with a bounty of over 240 portraits of Malaysian citizens. But it's not just about the mugshots. The book aims to convey the diversity of Malaysia's cultures by using these faces as representations.

You can take a peek at some of them in Lee's Snapshot feature. For the entirety, you can buy it here.

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