Olympus Olympus XZ-2

bartjeej

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Olympus creates XZ-2 iHS fast lens, CMOS enthusiast compact camera: Digital Photography Review

Same lens, newer sensor, tiltable touchscreen, removable handgrip. Looks great, costs $600 which might be about justified given its excellent lens and tilting touchscreen, especially since most competitors seem to have raised the prices for their serious compacts to similar heights.

[edit] oh, another cool feature is that you can set the lens ring to either click (for exposure settings) or be smooth (for focus). Nice touch! :)
 
Well, this pretty much completes the field for new "premium compacts" and just verifies how huge a jump Sony got on everyone with the RX100. In another year or two, they'll all catch up, but I'd bet Sony is gonna have a huge chunk of that market until that happens. With the S110, G15, LX7, EX-2 and XZ-2 all using the same basic 1/1.7" sensor and Fuji doubling down on its 2/3", nobody is gonna touch the RX100 for a while. Too bad, but not a surprise...

The features on the XZ-2 look wonderful though. Great lens again, slightly better sensor, and a flip up TOUCH screen! With a better sensor that's my DREAM compact (although I'd prefer 24-100 than 28-125, personally). This is a fixed zoom EPL5 in terms of function. I might even prefer this to the LX7 depending on how they deal with manual focus, distance scales, etc, and how the touch-screen interacts with manual focus (on the OMD, and I'd bet on the EPL5, you touch the screen ANYWHERE to trigger the shot when manual focus is engaged). But its all academic because none of these cameras touch the sensor performance of the RX100, even though they're a lot more fun to shoot with (for me anyway). So I'm sitting tight. But I'm anxiously looking forward to the "catch up" phase when all of these other manufacturers start designing around the better larger sensors - could be some amazing compacts coming down the line in another year or two. I'm sure they're working on them right now...

-Ray
 
Well isn't ricoh going to announce something? Hope they will or I have missed them... Flip screen is a something I miss on the rx100 and love when using nex5n with the zeiss 24/1.8 lens. The oly was my kids favorite cam of all times, they absolutely loved the grainy mode in low light shooting.
 
The Ricoh GRD series is usually updated in a 2-year cycle, and its last update was in 2011, so I'm not expecting a new GRD yet. They could do with a more all-round serious compact though, as the compact zoom modules on the GXR aren't particularly compact...
 
Great analysis Ray. I think for most folks it will be tough to choose a high priced P&S over the RX100. Right now the Sony is priced $50 more than the XZ-2; $100 more than X10; and $200 more than LX7 and S110. Maybe we will see the conventional high end P&S pricing come down a bit, as that will be there only short term way to compete with the RX100.

The camera I want to see next based on this evolution is an X10 with flip screen and RX100 sensor. More or less.
 
I really like the feature set and looks of the XZ-2; will be interesting to see test results and photos. If I were assembling a personal list of $600 cameras in which I would have an interest, the XZ-2 would be on it.
 
Well isn't ricoh going to announce something? Hope they will or I have missed them... Flip screen is a something I miss on the rx100 and love when using nex5n with the zeiss 24/1.8 lens. The oly was my kids favorite cam of all times, they absolutely loved the grainy mode in low light shooting.

The XZ-2 looks great!

No one knows what Ricoh will do. The mood on the DPR Ricoh forum is dim.
 
I love the images from my XZ-1, this new one has great specs. The analog/digital control ring is a cool idea. But I do think the sensor size may prove a sales problem after Sony up the ante with the RX100.
 
I think 600 is a little aggressive on pricing. I'm guessing this is the same sensor in the panasonic lx7 or is this a Sony sensor? At any rate, I think the price will come down to competitive pricing. Not much advantage between this and an LX7. I'm glad I picked up the XZ-1 cheap for my better half when I did.
 
Seems like the battle for top spot in serious compacts is getting hotter now with these new releases !

Hope the availability of the new models will be reasonable in order to actually get my own hands-on opinion of them all before I pick my best option for me and part with my hard earned cash.
 
Hi everyone,
Yes, the XZ2 looks interesting and is on my list to compare with ; Fuji X10, Fuji XF1, Nikon P7700, Panasonic LX7, Samsung EX2F, Sony RX100.

Would be great to have a side-by-side 'mega- test' review of all of these as no single retailer will stock this full range to allow a direct comparison of each one.
 
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