The enthusiast compact market has reached a bit of a saturation point, but the Stylus 1 hits a part of it that's still lacking. While most have 4x or 5x zoom lenses, the Stylus 1 has a 10.7x zoom lens.
The Stylus 1 has plenty of shooting options including manual and full manual modes, and two custom spots. There's a thumb dial on top for easy changes as well as two programmable function buttons, one on back and one on front.
It measures 4.6 inches wide by 2.2 inches deep by 3.4 inches high, so you're not exactly slipping this into a back pocket. However, it's still small enough to put in a coat pocket and definitely a small bag.
On back is a 3-inch 1M-dot-resolution tilting touch-screen LCD, a built-in electronic viewfinder (the same EVF found on the Olympus OM-D E-M5), and a hot shoe for adding an external flash. The camera also has built-in Wi-Fi that can be used with Olympus' iOS and Android apps for transferring shots to your smartphone or tablet directly, and remote control of the camera.
Around the lens barrel is a digital/analog control ring. A lever on the front lets you quickly switch modes: digital mode for fine zooming or manual focusing, or analog mode to adjust settings such as aperture, shutter speed, and more. There's also a variable speed zoom lever on the lens barrel and a button for the pop-up flash.
If 300mm still won't cut it for the zoom fiends out there, Olympus has the CLA-13 converter adapter and TCON-17x 1.7x teleconverter lens. Combined, they extend the focal length of the camera to 510mm while retaining the brightness of the constant f2.8 aperture.
Instead of using a manual lens cap that pops off when you turn the camera, the lens cap screws onto the body and has petals that are pushed open when the lens extends.
With its components, features, and seemingly very good build quality, it's not a surprise that this camera has a premium price tag. When it goes on sale in December the price will be $699.99.
