MELVILLE, N.Y., Aug. 25 -- Olympus America Inc. today introduced the Camedia E-10, the first 4 megapixel filmless digital SLR from Olympus. Its expected street price of $1999 is unprecedented for a camera offering its advanced range of digital capabilities to the professional digital photographer and serious amateur. Sports and nature enthusiasts, journalists and studio photographers will all appreciate the high image quality and detail captured by the Camedia E-10. Its 4 million-pixel CCD delivers file sizes of up to 12 MB.

The Camedia E-10 is Olympus' most powerful filmless SLR digital camera, and features new lens technology specifically designed to focus light evenly across the entire CCD surface. The all black aluminum body and attached 4X professional f2.0-2.4, 9-36mm zoom lens (equivalent to 35-140mm in 35mm photography) are designed to maximize image quality.

Manufactured with Extra Dispersion (ED) Glass, the lens features fully multicoated elements with dual aspherical glass elements to reduce chromatic aberrations and deliver the highest image quality of any lens built for a digital camera. This all-in-one design keeps the 2/3" RGB Interlaced CCD (2240 x 1680 pixels) clean and safe from harmful environmental conditions such as dust and humidity. A variety of matched add-on lenses deliver the flexibility digital photographers need to maximize creativity.

"The E-10 is designed to be the new flagship of the Olympus filmless digital camera product line. Its introduction will serve to solidify our position and credibility within the digital arena," said John Knaur, Digital Product Manager, Olympus America, Consumer Products Group. "This model truly answers the need for the image quality, speed and digital features requested by serious photographers, but previously not available at this price point."

The Camedia E-10 is a powerful digital camera with features professionals expect from an SLR, including a manual focusing ring on the lens barrel, a manual zoom ring and traditional-style focusing screen. The Camedia E-10 also offers dual AutoFocus with an Olympus-patented IR-active focus system for initial focus and a TTL passive focus for fine, accurate focus. Professionals will also appreciate the hot-shoe and PC flash connectivity for creative lighting. Equally important is the durability of the all aluminum body, including the "Mirror Box," which acts as a heat sink to reduce CCD heat and improve photographic quality.

Extremely easy to use, the Camedia E-10 offers one-touch buttons and dials as alternative means to change program modes. Rather than navigate through layers of LCD menu commands, the Camedia E-10 sports dedicated buttons to control shooting modes, flash, white balance and media card settings. Aperture and shutter controls are set using dials, enabling quick and easy access to a wide range of commonly used features and settings.

Selected settings can be viewed and reviewed on the adjustable high-resolution TFT LCD display, which swings between a 20 degree down angle and a 90 degree up angle to allow users to position the camera and precisely frame subjects from any shooting angle.

The high resolution LCD also allows easy index viewing of 1, 4, or 9 images; as well as a 2X or 4X magnification inspection mode. In the inspection mode, the LCD can be scrolled to pinpoint the exact location to be viewed. The LCD displays the camera control menus, set-up, and print menus, which utilize the DPOF (Digital Print Order Form) standard for tagging photographs to print. The Camedia E-10 also features NTSC video out for viewing the photos on a television or capturing on a VCR.

"Because it's digital, the E-10 allows us a lot of flexibility in what we can offer in an all-in-one camera, in addition to several technical advantages which improve performance and durability," stated Knaur. "The Camedia E-10 is one of the few devices available which offer both SmartMedia and CompactFlash Type I/II slot design. While we remain strongly committed to SmartMedia memory cards as the preferred storage medium, we recognize that the users of the E-10 might already have an investment in Compact Flash, so we try to accommodate users of both storage mediums," continued Knaur.

The Camedia E-10 can also copy images from SmartMedia to CompactFlash format for archiving or photo sharing. Olympus also provides a wide variety of connectivity choices through optional devices, including USB port connectivity, FlashPath floppy disk adapter and PCMCIA adapter card.

Other exciting new features of the Camedia E-10 include:

-- 32 MB SD-RAM Buffer built in, with a three frame per second burst mode for four photos.

-- <1.2 second shot-to-shot speed for unlimited number of photographs and <100 ms shutter lag time.

-- Versatile image quality modes including uncompressed TIFF, DCF-JPEG (2.7:1, 4:1 or 8:1 compression) and a 48-bit RAW mode (16 bit per color) for the highest image quality available.

-- iESP multi-patterned and center-weighted with 1.2% spot meter.

-- A lens design which incorporates a 62mm threaded lens barrel for optional accessory lenses including a macro lens, a 0.8X 28mm equivalent wide-angle converter, 1.45X and 3X telephoto converters.

-- 95% centered SLR viewfinder delivers a bright view of the subject, and indicates both the focus area and spot metering area for precise exposure and focus control.

-- Optional Lithium Polymer (LiPO) batteries, grip, chargers and grip straps are also available.

The Camedia E-10 will be available in October, 2000 with an estimated street price of $1999. It ships with a 32MB Olympus SmartMedia memory card, two LB-01 (CR-3V) Lithium batteries, Olympus Camedia Master 2.5 Utility Software for downloading images from the camera, Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE image manipulation and creation software, Olympus Photoshop Plug-in for Raw files, instruction manual, QuickStart Guide, lens cap and strap. Optional accessories include a fitted semi-hard camera case, Olympus NiMH batteries, AC adapter and additional extension lenses from 28mm equivalent to 420mm equivalent. All accessories will be available in October, 2000.

For more information, visit the Olympus E-10 Web page at: http://www.e-10.olympus.com.

Olympus America distributes a wide range of products for consumer, scientific, health care, commercial and industrial markets. These include film and filmless cameras, Microcassette and digital voice recorders, binoculars, personal photo printers, medical and industrial endoscopes, biological and metallurgical microscopes and measuring instruments, clinical analyzers, and other high technology products. Olympus America is responsible for sales in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.