«

(Wired) - Olympus is taunting tigers at the zoo with its
new digital "Pen" camera, the E-P1.

The "tigers" in this case are the self-appointed camera
snobs, who will undoubtedly maul this bold, retro-styled
shooter for not being expensive enough, powerful enough or
big enough to qualify as a "real" camera.

But the ambitious consumers at whom it's aimed will have a
hard time understanding this strange new device's appeal
without first hearing a 10-minute lecture about sensor
size, interchangeable lens mount standards, optical
viewfinders and high ISO speeds.

The resulting camera is beautiful, fun to use, yet not
entirely practical. It's pricey too ($799 at Amazon.com:
http://xrl.us/PenEP1A ). As a result, it probably won't
become a massive bestseller, but that's beside the point.
What it will do is win design awards, turn heads, and kick-
start camera makers to put a little more thought into their
designs, rather than mindlessly churning out variations on
the same tired theme year after year..

Continued: http://xrl.us/PenEP1