Olympus on Thursday introduced a new digital camera, the IR-300, as well as a new portable storage device, the S-DVD-100 DVD/CD burner, that connects directly to the company’s IR series of cameras. The IR-300 and S-DVD-100 are part of the company’s Total Imaging Solution line of cameras, storage devices and printers that were designed for inter-operability. The IR-500 camera, S-HD-100 40GB hard drive and P-S100 portable photo printer are also part of that system and were originally announced last October for January shipping, but that date slipped.
The IR-300, which will ship in April for US$349.99, is a five-megapixel model with a two-inch LCD, 3x optical and 12x total zoom, 19 shooting modes, QuickTime Movie mode and an Album function that can create up to 12 separate albums with up to 100 images in each. Its Calendar feature can also organize and select images by specific dates. A product page is not yet available on the Olympus Web site.
The S-DVD-100 DVD/CD burner, which will ship in May for $399.99, was hinted at by Olympus back in October. It connects to an IR series digital camera and burns photos directly to a CD or DVD. A $29.99 adapter will connect any USB mass storage camera to the S-DVD-100 or the S-HD-100, while a $19.99 cable can connect either the S-DVD-100 or the S-HD-100 to the P-S100. More specific details, as well as product pages, are not on the Olympus Web site yet.
The IR-500 and P-S100 are available this month while the S-HD-100 will ship in April. The $349.99 IR-500 is a four-megapixel camera with 2.8x optical and 30x total zoom, a 360-degree rotating 2.5-inch display and the ability to shoot video at 640 x 480, 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 resolution. It ships with a 16MB xD-Picture Card. Mac OS X v10.2 is required.
The S-HD-100 40GB hard drive ($299.99) can hold approximately 40,000 four-megapixel images and connects directly to compatible cameras, including the IR-300 and IR-500. When downloading files from the IR series cameras, it checks for redundancy and makes sure only new pictures are transferred. The same compatibility holds true of the P-S100 dye-sublimation photo printer ($199.99), which includes PictBridge technology and the ability to produce 4 x 6-inch prints in approximately 88 seconds. Both can also connect directly to a Mac; system requirements are not yet available on the Olympus Web site, nor are product pages.