Olympus UK teases new ‘premium compact’ in photo competition launch

Olympus UK has teamed up with exhibtr.com to launch a competition for student photographers, and in the process teased an upcoming ‘premium compact’ as one of the prizes. The Student Photography Competition 2013/14 has a theme of ‘People & Portraits’, the overall winner will receive an OM-D E-M5 12-50mm lens kit, while two runners-up will receive the soon-to-be-announced camera.

UK-based photographers will be able to get an ‘exclusive preview’ of the new model at London’s Covent Garden from November 2nd to 9th, as part of a series of talks and events that form ‘Olympus Image Space @ Icetank’. This includes a series of workshops, presentations and interviews with well-known photographers including Barry Lategan, Damian McGillicuddy and Jill Furmanovsky. Full details can be found at www.olympus-imagespace.co.uk.

Press release:

Olympus & exhibtr.com Student Photography Competition 2013/14

Olympus & exhibtr.com team up to find the best student photographers

London, 21 October 2013 – Olympus have joined forces with Exhibtr, the social network for photographers, artists and writers, to host a competition to discover the best photographers in the student community.

Exhibtr was founded in 2012 by student Harry Hanlon as a vehicle to showcase the best new talent in the arts and to expose them to a wider audience; Olympus saw Exhibtr as a natural fit for a competition aiming to find fresh photographic talent.

Speaking of the partnership Harry said: “Exhibtr is very proud to be hosting the upcoming Olympus Student Photography Competition. The opportunity to give students a chance to show off their best work, whilst being in with a chance of winning some brilliant prizes is incredibly exciting for us. We’re looking forward to seeing the most creative and original take on the competition’s theme.”

About the competition:

The theme of the competition is “People & Portraits”. We want to encourage entries that capture the wide range of human emotions and behaviour, whether in a posed portrait, a shared moment between friends or a candid street shot of passers-by, there should be no shortage of opportunities to capture submissions.

Entrants don’t need to be a professional photographer or on a photography course to enter, just a keen
eye and an interest or passion for photography.

The prizes:

Students entering the competition have the opportunity to win the superb multi award-winning OM-D EM5, a Micro Four Thirds camera that is used by amateurs and professionals alike and loved for both its high quality images and retro good looks, and the runners-up prizes are just as desirable:

Overall winner – Olympus OM-D E-M5 kit incl. M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm 1:3.5-6.3 lens
Two runners-up – The soon to be announced latest high-end compact from Olympus.

If the mystery runners-up prizes have left you intrigued, head to the Olympus pop-up gallery at The Ice Tank in London’s Covent Garden from November 2 to 9 for an exclusive preview of the new camera. More information on this event will be available on http://www.olympus-imagespace.co.uk.

How to enter:

To enter, simply sign up to exhibtr.com. Once logged in you may upload as many entries as you like.
However, remember to ensure all entries you would like to be judged are tagged with the phrase
“olycomp”.

All we ask is that you are aged 16 years or older and be in full or part time education. The competition is open from now until February 28 2014. Following the closing date we’ll announce a short list of 30 entrants who will all be given premium Exhibtr accounts, from the final 30 we’ll then choose the 3 prize winners.

The 30 short listed entries will be chosen 4 weeks after the competition closes, the final 3 will be announced 2 weeks later.

The competition will be fully promoted through Olympus’ social media channels, exhibtr.com and Olympus Magazine, supporting material will also be sent out to higher education establishments.

Comments

Wake me up when they finally put a 43 sensor in a fixed lens compact.

The smallest I’ll go is 1″ sensor. The RX100 killed everything underneath that size for me.

Olympus STYLUS1 Leaked Image and Specification surfaced over the web today, the camera features OMD like design, 1:1,7 inch sensor and a 24-300mm zoom lens. The rumored price Mini OMD is $700, expected to be announced at 29 Oct 2013.

http://thenewcamera.com

The focal length seems too big to retain decent speed, with 24-300mm it seems more like a bridge/ultrazoom camera and UZs typically don´t have faste lenses.
But maybe they took inspiration from the RX10 (24-200mm/2,8); we will see soon.

Any chance that it will be rx 100 competitor?
I hope it has large sensor and fast lens

No, it will be usual 1/1,7″ sensor.

And hopefully, the new camera will have the 28-112 F 1.4-1.8 Lens that is patented here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fegami.blog.so-net.ne.jp%2F2013-01-08

That would be nice. Obviously the trend in enthusiast compact segment is brighter lenses and EVF and it seems the XZ-3 (?) will have both.

Stop teasing, Olympus, and just announce it. Only Canon, Panasonic and Sony have a high enough reputation in the compact camera space to warrant this type of marketing.

According to rumour sites this new premium compact should be announced on October 29 and it should have usual 1/1.7 inch like XZ series, but it should have a built-in EVF in the middle (“mini OMD”).

I’ve started my digital shooting with a C-5060, then used C-8080, SP320, XZ-1, for my personal work, and enjoyed all of them immensely. Then I made the mistake of purchasing a XZ-2 with its very poor focusing performance. I waited with patience hoping Olympus would come up with a firmware correction / upgrade, but nothing happened. I’m using the LX-7 now, and I’m very happy with it. I don’t think I will touch another Olympus compact. In the past I’ve also used with satisfaction, LX3, Canon G9 and G15. I’ve still got my C-5060 and LX3. Thought I’d share my thoughts 🙂