Source:www.Olympus.com

Olympus has just announced the upcoming release of a wide range of new digital cameras designed to fit the needs of amateur photographers.

The "FE" series of cameras are basically advanced point and shoots with favorable price points and a myriad of features. These pocketable cameras seem outstanding, if they live up to the manufacturer's claims.

The least expensive model, the FE 210, allows the use of alkaline or lithium AA batteries as well as rechargeable NIMH batteries. That's a nice feature for the occasional shooter who doesn't want to bother with battery chargers, and for those times when you can't recharge a pair of easily available alkalines will keep you going.

The Olympus Stylus SW 770 is touted as a "tough camera" so it might fit the bill for a clumsy photographer, or those who want a sturdy camera to take on hiking, camping, climbing or similar perilous pursuit.

For those of you who love that long, long, zoom range the Olympus SP 550 uz may be just the ticket.

This baby zooms to an astonishing 35mm equivalent of 504mm so wildlife photographers, especially birders may be interested in this one. With a 504mm focal length image stabilization is of paramount importance and Olympus has installed 2 systems for that purpose.

I've always had great results from my Olympus film cameras, and the one, older Olympus digital camera I own.

I got a used Olympus C700 uz 2.3 mega pixel digital off eBay a few years ago and it's proven to be a winner.

Actually it is a precursor to the SP550 uz mentioned earlier. It too has a long zoom range, at least for its time, but nowhere near the new version. By the way, the "uz" designation stands for "ultra zoom."

Even at only 2.3 mega pixels this camera produces great pictures, of reasonable size, due to its gem of a lens. Great lenses were always the bragging point of Olympus film cameras, and so far, the company seems to be carrying on the tradition with its digital cameras.

Keep in mind that despite a camera's bells and whistles, features that you may never use, and big numbers for zoom ratios and sensors, it's still the lens that makes the picture. So get a camera with the best lens you can afford, preferably one with ED and or Aspheric elements. We'll delve more into lens technology in a later posting.

I like to wait a while before plunking my money down on any type of toy, particularly electronics, because the price invariably comes down rapidly, and I like to wait to see just how good, or bad, it is.

These days it doesn't take very long before there's a plethora of user reviews available on the net that you can check out.

And yes, I'm a big fan of eBay. By carefully researching products and reading user reviews, and the exercise of patience, you can get many things off eBay that ordinarily may be out of reach, especially if you can find a well cared for, used example.

Sure it's a bit of a gamble at times, but hey, I do live in Las Vegas, and although the casinos see precious little of my money, I do feel the compulsion to gamble once in a while, so eBay's my game.

Now, I'm not recommending Olympus, I'm merely reporting on their latest efforts, and my own experience with their past products. I don't want to throw wet blankets on promising new digital cameras but, as you know, companies and their products can go up, or down in quality at any given moment, so caveat emptor.