Olympus Stylus 1s premium compact camera becomes official

Olympus has announced the replacement for the Stylus 1 premium compact camera in the body of the new Stylus 1s, which comes with a few minor improvements over its predecessor.

The rumor mil has recently leaked some photos of a possible Stylus 1 successor. The details have been rather scarce as not even the name of the shooter has managed to be leaked.

Although it has not been too much of a wait, photographers located in Japan can finally get a taste of the brand new Olympus Stylus 1s compact camera, as it has been unveiled officially.

Olympus has unveiled the new Stylus 1s with Step-Up Zoom and Small Target AF functions.

Olympus Stylus 1s announced with Small AF Target and Step-Up Zoom functions

Due to unknown reasons, Olympus has introduced the Stylus 1s only on its home turf and it still unclear whether or not availability will expand to other markets.

The manufacturer has not made lots of changes when compared to the previous model. As a result, the Stylus 1s comes with Small AF Target and Step-Up Zoom features.

The former allows users to reduce the size of the focus point (in simple terms), making sure that focus does not slip to other parts of the frame.

On the other hand, the Step-Up Zoom function allows users to zoom in steps. The lens of the Olympus Stylus 1s offers a 35mm equivalent of 28-300mm, so the company is aiming to give users the possibility of switching to more common focal lengths when zooming. Starting from 28mm, users can easily zoom to 35mm, then 50mm, 70mm, 85mm, 100mm, 135mm, 200mm, and 300mm.

Olympus Stylus 1s comes with a 3-inch tilting touchscreen on the back as well as a built-in electronic viewfinder.

WCON-08X wide-conversion lens brings a wider focal length to the Stylus 1 series

Another novelty is the WCON-08X wide-angle conversion lens, which can be attached to the  front of the lens. The maximum aperture of the 28-300mm lens remains constant at f/2.8 throughout the zoom range and this will not change when the WCON-08X is mounted on the camera.

The wide-angle conversion lens will offer a 25mm equivalent of about 22.4mm, so the Olympus Stylus 1s will become more suitable for landscape photography.

It is worth noting that the Japanese company is already offering a TCON-17X tele-conversion lens, which also maintains the maximum aperture of f/2.8, but offers a 35mm equivalent of 510mm.

Olympus Stylus 1s will be released in Japan in mid-November.

More details about the new Olympus Stylus 1s premium compact camera

Specs-wise, the Olympus Stylus 1s comes with a 12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch-type image sensor, built-in electronic viewfinder, 3-inch tilting LCD touchscreen on the back, and a continuous shooting mode of up to 7fps.

The ISO ranges between 100 and 12800, the maximum value being helpful in low-light conditions. The built-in WiFi functionality will also be helpful, as users can remotely control the camera or even transfer files wirelessly.

The premium compact camera will be released in mid-November for about 70,000 yen / $650. As its availability in the US remains unknown, we should let you know that the Stylus 1 is available for about $650 at Amazon.