Olympus Camedia E-10 — 4MP fixed-lens bridge camera with fast 35-140mm zoom, 2000
The Camedia E-10 was Olympus's flagship digital camera at its 2000 launch, a fixed-lens bridge design built for enthusiasts wanting SLR-style handling before affordable digital SLRs existed. Despite the E-1x naming later used for Olympus's interchangeable-lens DSLRs, the E-10 has a permanently attached lens.
It pairs a 4-megapixel, 2/3-inch CCD sensor with a fixed 35-140mm f/2-2.4 lens, a genuinely fast aperture for the period. A beam-splitting prism feeds both a TTL optical viewfinder and a flip-up 1.8-inch LCD simultaneously, exposure runs from full auto through manual, and it stores images on CompactFlash or SmartMedia. The body weighs around 1,050 grams.
Its combination of a fast aperture zoom and true SLR-style optical viewing made it a distinctive prosumer tool when most digital cameras relied on slow lenses and laggy LCD-only framing, though the fixed lens meant no system to grow into.
Well-cared-for examples remain usable for deliberate, tripod-friendly shooting. Buyers should check the CompactFlash door hinge, test the flip-up LCD action, confirm the viewfinder is clear of haze, and verify the battery and charger are present, since spares are hard to source.