I don’t know about you but I was blown away by the beautiful shots of the Olympus EP-1 we saw yesterday. So, today is the number crunching now that the official release is out.

There’s a 12.3-megapixel Live MOS sensor within that exquisite frame with an ISO range of 100-6400, and it’s not just there were it sounds like a proper DSLR. It shoots RAW footage, if you desire, onto SDHC cards and features both in-body dust reduction and image stabilisation. It’ll rattle off shots at an impressive 3fps using an 11-point AF system through live view onto a 3-inch, 230,000-dot LCD on the back. All very healthy stuff.

It records HD video at 720p and 30fps and despite its antiquated look you do get all manner of HDMI and USB ports. I’m very impressed to note the presence of microphones in the plural which makes stereo sound recording possible unlike most DSLRs which only offer mono.

So, the big question is – how much do you reckon this all costs? What would you pay for style, size and supreme functionality?

Well, you can pick up the body and the zoom lens for £699, the body and the fixed wide angle for £749 or the lot for £849, and all of it here. There’s also an optional flash which’ll bump it up too.

Take a look at the detailed spec sheet for the bits and pieces you’re looking for but, if you ask me, it’s very good deal – provided it actually takes good photos, of course.

i, stereo recording, WAV files, ,slot, HDMI out and 720p video recording at 30fps, n,, , AVI Motion JPEG(30fps) to 2GB,

Olympus