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Introduction |
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 The 14-megapixel Olympus Stylus-7040 combines a wide-angle 7x zoom, HD video with HDMI output and a well-designed control system in a handsome two-tone package priced at $249.99. Set to ship in February 2010, we had the chance to try out a pre-production unit at the CES show in Las Vegas, and liked what we saw. |
Front
The Stylus-7040 will be available in titanium, pink and light blue, with silver panels on top and bottom. The pink color, which is more a champagne pink than a Hello Kitty pink, is shown here. There's a self-timer indicator lamp between the flash and the lens, and a mono mic to the right of the lens.
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| The Stylus-7040 has a distinctive visual style that we like. |
Back
The back of the camera has a very clean design, with plenty of room for your thumb. The red button is a dedicated video recording control. The wheel surrounding the OK button does double duty: you can press it like a four-way controller, or spin it when you want to move through a menu quickly, or browse through your photos in playbck mode. Pressing the top this controller cycles through different screen displays, pressing the bottom of the wheel brings up the image erase menu. There's a small button above the wheel to access playback mode, a Menu button, and a question mark button that takes you to the built-in user manual -- more oin that later.
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The back of the camera is uncluttered,
with easy to use controls. |
Sides
The left side of the camerq has no functional features, but looks good with its multicolored sandwiched panels.
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Here again, the camera looks
surprisingly sophisticated. |
The right side of the camera has a hinged panel covering the USB/AV and HDMI ports, and a nook for attaching the wrist strap.
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| I/O ports on the right side |
Top
The camera top is home to the on/off switch and the shutter.
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The shutter is far enough to the left
for a comfortable shooting position. |
Bottom
On the bottom is the latched compartment for the rechargeable battery and SD card, and a plastic tripod mount. There's also a barely there speaker behind the two dots on the right side.
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| The battery, SD card and speaker |
