Olympus Imaging Corporation is pleased to announce the upcoming release of the SP-590UZ, the smallest compact digital camera in its class and the first in the world to incorporate a 26x optical zoom. This compact, all-in-one camera is scheduled for release in Australia in mid March 2009. Pricing is yet to be announced. The Olympus SP-590UZ is equipped with a high-magnification zoom lens that covers a remarkably wide shooting range, with focal lengths ranging from 26mm wide angle to 676mm telephoto.

With advanced optical expertise, Olympus has been able to incorporate the same high-powered super-telephoto capability that normally makes SLR cameras quite bulky and heavy, into a compact, palm-size digital camera. Due to its small form, this camera is an ideal travelling companion, offering the ower of a full-size camera and lenses without increasing the amount of luggage when travelling. Such features make the SP-590UZ an easy-to-use all-in-one camera, allowing anyone, anywhere, to enjoy the pleasure of advanced photography.

The super-telephoto 26x optical zoom can capture up-close images of even the most distant subjects, creating high-impact images taken by photographers of all levels. The SP-590UZ high zoom capabilities captures details at a distance that cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as the facial expressions of children in athletic or theatrical events or athletes in professional sporting competitions. Now, a single camera makes it possible to take a wide variety of pictures from various angles of view, including 26mm wide-angle for landscape or group shots and super-macro for close-up pictures of flowers or other small objects at a distance of only 1cm. Clear, focused images are assured by Olympus's advanced Dual Shakeproof CCD-shift image stabilisation mechanism and high-sensitivity imaging, which revents picture blur due to camera shake and subject motion commonly associated with telephoto or super-telephoto shooting.

Olympus has also added a new advanced feature to its popular scene modes – ‘background defocusing’. A technique usually available only with SLR cameras, background defocusing can defocus the background to make the main subject stand out, proving a sophisticated new way for compact camera users to create more expressive and dynamic photographs.

26x optical ultra-zoom lens with focal lengths from 26mm3 wide-angle to 676mm super-telephoto
The SP-590UZ boasts the highest zooming ratio ever offered by a zoom lens including those designed for use in digital SLR cameras, with its 26x optical zoom. Users can now instantly switch to any focal length from wide-angle 26mm3 to super-telephoto 676mm3 with a single lens. 26mm3 wide-angle shooting is ideal for expansive landscape shots, as well as group pictures of a large number of people, or for shooting in a confined indoor space. A lens with a super-telephoto focal length of 676mm3 would normally be bulky and heavy but Olympus has succeeded in developing a lens that allows the SP-590UZ to capture distant subjects, in astonishingly large sizes without increasing the cameras size and weight.

When digital zoom is also used, this camera can shoot images with a maximum zooming ratio of 130x (3380mm3), which means that a full moon can be shot to fill the picture frame. The SP-590UZ is also equipped with a macro shooting function that can take close-ups of subjects such as flower petals from as close as 1cm, it can shoot pictures from various angles of view with a single lens – the ultimate in versatility. The zoom lens used with this camera uses three Extra-low Dispersion (ED) lenses, compared to two ED lenses, with the 20x zoom lens of the previous SP-565UZ. This has further reduced the chromatic aberration at high zoom ratios and renders images even more clearly than before.

Background defocusing function provides a unique technique for photographic expression previously only available in SLR cameras
The image sensor used in a compact digital camera is smaller than the one used in a digital SLR camera, providing a large depth of field usually able to capture every corner of an image clearly. SLR cameras, on the other hand, can vary the depth of field according to setup, and are therefore capable of defocusing the background if desired by the user. When this facility is used for portrait shooting, the defocused background provides emphasis to the subject, producing a much more impressive picture than with ordinary shooting capabilities. Olympus has added background defocusing function to the SP-590UZ's scene modes. When the subject is positioned inside the frame displayed on the LCD monitor, the area outside the frame is defocused. This results in the main subject standing out clearly in the image, while the background is defocused just like a picture shot with an SLR camera.

A Dual Shakeproof CCD-shift image stabilisation mechanism with digital SLR heritage
One of the key problems associated with high zoom ratios is picture blur due to camera shake or subject motion. This can be prevented by using the SP-590UZthanks to the Dual Shakeproof CCD-shift image stabilisation mechanism and high-sensitivity image capture. An inbuilt gyro sensor detects camera movement caused by an unsteady hand and triggers the internal actuators that use sophisticated algorithms developed originally for the state-of-the-art Olympus E series to shift the CCD to compensate for the path of movement. As a result, travelling photographers are free to take crystal clear images of architecture, or subjects from a distance, in daylight or low light, without the need to carry a cumbersome tripod.

HDMI connector for HDTV-compatible output
The SP-590UZ contains a HDMI™ connection for the output of images in high definition onto an LCD or Plasma TV. An optionally available HDMI™ cable allows the camera to be connected to HDTV equipment with an HDMI input so camera images can be viewed on a high-quality HDTV display5.

Other features
• Manual shooting features
• In-camera panorama image composition,with on-screen guide for camera movement
• Electronic viewfinder and 2.7 inch HyperCrystal II LCD monitor
• High speed sequential shooting at 13.5 frames per second6
• Multiple exposure fireworks mode with first-frame display while shooting the second frame
• Beauty mode, providing subjects with an ‘instant makeover’, using Face Detect technology
• Face Detect to 16 faces and Olympus Shadow Adjust technology
• Smile shot using evolved face detection technology
• Optional 1.7x Teleconverter TCON-17 available for bird and wildlife photography
• Optional FL-50R and FL-36R wireless flash compatibility
• Colour Universal Design authentication for easy visibility for the sight impaired
• Micro SD memory card recording and playback supported via MASD-1 Micro SD adapter (included)

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