DIGITAL CAMERA LIVES UP TO ITS NAME
The consumer electronics item projected to be one of the best
selling holiday gift items this year is the digital camera. That
seems to be the general consensus amongst those who monitor this
kind of thing. Digital photography has really come into its own
these past couple of years. The megapixels have gotten bigger, the
LCD screens on the backs of the cameras have also grown and the
memory capacities that can store even more pictures continue to
expand. But there is one thing that seems to be shrinking amongst
this year's bumper crop of consumer-orientated cameras and that is
the size of the camera itself.
As I looked through all of these tiny little marvels with all of
their nifty features, I noticed that they all had one thing in
common. The cameras themselves looked pretty much like every other
model. They all fit in the palm of your hand, but they were
basically rectangular, metallic colored, loaded with lots of buttons
and had a large lens that popped in and out. In a word, boring. But
it looks like Olympus has come up with something different with
their latest offering, the Stylus Verve.
Just looking at a Verve makes you want to own one. According to
Olympus, it was designed to look as though it had been forged by the
force of water. The Verve has rounded corners and looks sort of like
a rectangle that has been unevenly skewed off to the right. It has a
kind of organic look and feel that I found to be more ergonomic than
its rectangular counterparts. The Verve lends itself to a more
natural grip when you're ready to capture an image into your hand.
The lens is concealed behind a silver-rimmed circular door that
opens and closes flush to the camera's surface. This is one sexy
little digital camera.
 In
addition to the shape are the six different colors it comes in which
are Black, Blue, Red, Silver, Copper, and White. And although some
of the colors may differ, do you begin to see a similarity with
another wildly successful consumer electronic product? Think "iPod
Mini" from Apple. There's just something about the iPod Mini that
makes it stand out in the crowd of mp3 players and I believe that
Olympus may have done exactly the same thing with their Verve.
Olympus just might have a major hit with the Verve due to many of
the same reasons that made the iPod Mini successful.
The Verve is chocked full of the features consumers look for in a
digital camera such as built-in flash, red eye reduction, a good 4
megapixel rating, 1.8 inch LCD screen, seamless optical and digital
zoom, plus an assorted array of features available through its
on-screen menu. These include image effects that let you resize,
rotate, convert to black and white or sepia tones, and stitch up to
10 frames for a panorama effect. You can also shoot full-motion
videos and sound, their length depending on how much memory you have
available on the removable xD Picture Card (a 16 megabyte card is
included in the box). And while many of these effects are found on
the other cameras, Olympus has put all of them into a tiny package
that just looks and feels better. When you power on the Verve for
example, you hear the sound of an automobile engine starting up. Or
you can configure it with other power-up sounds and screens. You can
also use any photo in its memory as a startup image you'll see when
you power on the camera. It's little touches like these along with
its fashion-statement looks that make the Verve itself a little
piece of eye candy.
Olympus includes software for both Windows and Macintosh as the
camera works on both platforms. Even without installing the Olympus
software, OS X on the Macintosh will instantly read the images onto
the desktop when using the included USB cable. Olympus even includes
an audio and video cable so that you can see and hear everything on
any TV set with composite video and audio-in jacks. An included
battery charger powers the camera's Lithium-Ion battery.
If a digital camera is on your wish or gift list this holiday
season, be sure you check out the Verve from Olympus. This is one
little camera that lives up to its name. $349.99.
www.olympusamerica.com |
