The Olympus E-620, based on the Four-Thirds system, features a 12.3 megapixel Live MOS image sensor with sensor-shift, body-integrated image stabilization, 7-point AF, TruePic III+ image processor, built-in wireless flash controller, and a highly articulated, 2.7-inch flip-out/swivel live-view LCD.

It also features in-camera Art Filters such as the following:

• Pop Art:  Enhances colors, making them more saturated and vivid, creating high-impact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feeling of the Pop Art style of the 1960s;
• Soft Focus:  Creates an ethereal, otherworldly atmosphere that renders subjects in a heavenly light without obscuring details;
• Pale & Light Color:  Encloses the foreground of an image in flat gentle light and pastel colors reminiscent of a flashback scene in a movie;
• Light Tone: Renders shade and highlight areas softly to lend an elegant air to the subject;
• Grainy Film:  Evokes the feeling of documentary footage shot in monochrome with grainy, high-contrast film; and
• Pin Hole:  Reduces the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center of the picture.

The Olympus E-620 is expected to start shipping by May 2009. $700 for the body alone and $800 for the body with a 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

More information elsewhere:

• Olympus E-620, The 12.3Mpix DSLR Camera (blogntech.com)
• Olympus E-620 flips out and shoots people (Boing Boing)
• Olympus E-620 announced and previewed (Digital Photography Review)
• Olympus E-620 Hands-on Preview (Digital Photography Review)
• Olympus E-620 camera (DigitalPixels.net)
• Olympus’ E-620 raises the bar for entry-level DSLRs (Engadget)
• Olympus E-620 (ePHOTOzine)