Olympus E30 Four Thirds DSLR is announced (the November surprise!)

The November surprise did not come from the Elections, but instead it came from Olympus. Olympus talked about a coming-up prototype at Photokina, but apparently they have accelerated their plans with an official Olympus E30 Four Thirds DSLR announcement. CNet has posted the announcement with the details and basic specs.

This will likely use the same sensor as the Panasonic G1 which already had two reviews.

Also coming is version II of the 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 lens at $600.

Thanks to our reader for the heads up on this!

More details coming up tomorrow (Not yet apparently)

Update on Tuesday Nov 4
The post has disappeared from the CNet USA site, but is still available at CNet UK and Electronista.

Initial Reactions
Olympus users at dpreview are reacting to this surprise announcement.

Why did Olympus not announce this camera at Photokina like everyone else? Were they trying to "preserve" 40 days of Olympus E3 sales? This will launch in January 2009 at $1300. Strange timing indeed!

Really Olympus? The night before Election Day? :-)

Official Olympus E30 announcement

A few hours after the leaktroduction, the Olympus E30 was announced everywhere else. The US price will be $1300 (pre-order at Amazon) for body-only, and $1400 bundled with the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 lens (pre-order at Amazon).

Key New Specs of the E30

• 12-megapixel LiveMOS sensor (see Panasonic G1)
  
• 2.7" LCD with a 270-degree swiveling function
  
• dual card support (CompactFlash and xD)
  
• Six art filters
  
• Digital "Leveler"

More on the E30 around the internets

• Brief hands-on preview at dpreview, which includes side-by-side camera body pictures of the E3, E30 and E520.
  
• Detailed discussion at Four Thirds User
  
• Hands-on vide preview at Digital Camera Review (5 minutes)
  
• Detailed specs at dpreview
  
• Press release at Imaging Insider
  
• Japanese release is December 20 for 150,000 yen per digitalcamera.jp