Hamburg, 21 November 2000 - With its latest offering, Olympus has further improved on the C-3030ZOOM - EISA's "Digital Camera of the Year 2000". A much brighter, redesigned lens system guarantees the three megapixel CAMEDIA C-3040ZOOM will perfectly capture motifs across an even wider range of situations. Moreover, additional metering options, extra adjustable settings and an enhanced digital zoom function are just the beginnings of the innovations this new model offers.

Focusing light with exceptional precision onto the 1/1.8 inch, 3.34 million pixel CCD, the astoundingly bright F1.8-2.6 multivariator lens assures extreme shooting versatility. Ten glass elements are arranged in seven groups enabling an optical zoom range of up to 3x (equivalent to 35-105 mm on a 35 mm model). Extra magnification is possible by utilising the seamlessly adjustable digital zoom. It provides additional enlargement to 2.5x (or even 5x in VGA mode (640 x 480 pixels).)

Focus can be set manually or left to the camera's multi-metering system. This model furthermore offers a spot AF measurement option for added autofocus control.

As expected, the C-3040ZOOM features a range of exposure modes: From the effortless Program setting, to Aperture and Shutter priority plus Manual. However, it additionally allows multi-spot and multi-centre-average exposure metering, enabling even better shots in high-contrast situations. For added ease, automatic exposure (AE) lock spot-measurements are now simply set with just the touch of the camera's "OK" button. Auto bracketing is of course also included, ensuring the capture of the same shot with different exposure values. Extra photographic versatility has similarly been secured by extending the slowest permitted shutter priority speed from one to four seconds, while the highest remains at a quick 1/800 second.

An extremely fast 32 MB internal buffer memory gives the C-3040ZOOM incredible power. E.g.: Up to 3.1 frames per second can be captured in top resolution (2,048 x 1,536 pixels = SUXGA), making it an ideal choice for sports photographers or other ambitious users.

A built-in flash unit with slow synchronisation ability delivers ample flexibility for a very wide range of situations. The new Olympus CAMEDIA model can, however, also be connected with an external flash unit - such as the FL-40 - via its five pin socket. The camera is thereby suitable for deployment under even the most challenging night-time and low-light conditions.

ISO and white balance settings may be both automatically determined, or adjusted manually. Providing absolute colour temperature reading accuracy, photographers can furthermore employ the "one touch" option to calibrate the camera to the ambient conditions, or utilise white balance compensation for extra-fine regulation.

Joining the usual "soft" or "hard" image sharpness choices, this CAMEDIA innovation now allows the contrast level of photos to be selected. In this way, the images are capable of being immediately primed for their intended use, such as for work on a computer. Picture effects including black & white, sepia and white-/blackboard are also available to suit particular requirements.

Like all cameras in the C-3000ZOOM series, this model includes a QuickTime Motion JPEG* movie recording facility. What's new, however, is the handy editing function and the option to disable sound recording in the movie mode. With the setting at "OFF", photographers may use the optical zoom during video-sequence capture instead.

Results of movies and photographs can be viewed on either the integrated 4.5 cm wide-angle TFT LCD display, or on a monitor via the camera's video-out terminal. So that all shots can be viewed comfortably - not just those taken in landscape alignment but also those in portrait format - the C-3040ZOOM incorporates a new feature allowing the rotation of images shown on an external monitor.

Thanks to compatibility with up to 64 MB SmartMedia cards and a large variety of image quality recording options, many frames may be taken before needing to change media or download data. The following table provides just a sample of the available choices of image quality and the applicable number of storable frames.

When the transfer of files to a computer is desired, besides using the optionally obtainable Olympus card reader/writer or adapters, photographers can now also choose between two transmission methods directly from the camera. As well as a serial terminal, the C-3040ZOOM includes a fast storage class supported USB interface. When linked to a computer via this connection, the camera is automatically recognised as an external storage device and shown in the PC's file directory** for easy file management.

Combining a brilliant stylish design with outstanding functions, including many that are new and improved, the CAMEDIA C-3040ZOOM is sure to whet every ambitious photographer's appetite. It is planned for release in the first quarter 2001.

* QuickTime Motion JPEG is a registered trademark of Apple Computer.