During the past 24 months Olympus has seen marketshare stripped away from them as brands like Sony, Panasonic and Samsung move into the traditional camera market alongside brands like Canon, Nikon and Pentax.

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At a breakfast in Sydney tomorrow, the Company who were one of the first camera Companies to convince mass retailers like Harvey Norman to stock digital camera's will launch the SP-800UZ a digital camera that comes equipped with a high-magnification zoom lens that covers a range from 28mm wide-angle to 840mm.

The only problem is the camera looks like an early retro camera model, with silver casing and a side grip to hold the camera steady.

The new camera has a 14-megapixel CCD and 3-inch wide-screen(16:9) LCD display.

Olympus claim that new 30x optical zoom lens can capture details that cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as the facial expressions of children in athletics or theatrical events or athletes in professional sport competitions. 

When combined with the digital zooming, the total zoom ratio can be increased 150x, enough to zoom right into the moon claim Olympus.

The Japanese Company have also introduced "background defocusing". A technique usually available only with SLR cameras, background defocusing can defocus the background to make the main subject stand out.

According to senior retail executives the battle this year is more about which digital camera brands to stock. 

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