Turn your phone into a legit camera with the Olympus Air, soon to come stateside

On Tuesday, Olympus announced that it will bring its Air 01 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) interchangeable lens camera (ILC) to the U.S. and Canada in July. Similar in concept to Sony’s QX1, the Air is a lens adapter designed to work with iOS (7.0 or higher) and Android (4.0 or higher, as well as Amazon Kindle Fire) devices, with all the camera guts inside a compact cylinder, minus a display and traditional camera controls. The lens mount is compatible with MFT lenses from Olympus, Panasonic, and other manufacturers.

The Air was announced in February for the Japanese market, where it’s currently on sale. The North American version is the same, but will have its own app and support for Amazon Cloud Drive. The Air will sell in the U.S. for $300 (body only; less expensive than a full MFT camera), or $500 with a 14-42mm lens. It ships in July.

$200 OFF OLYMPUS OM-D E-M10 DIGITAL CAMERA

If you’re in the market for a retro-yet-elegant compact system cameras that boast mid-range-SLR performance, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 is a solid choice. This lightweight, 16MP camera is sure to please any photography enthusiast who isn’t interested in lugging around a bulky SLR. The E-M10 boasts an extremely powerful TruePic VII image processor, 81-point AF system, tiltable 3-inch LCD touchscreen, shoots 8 fps, and comes with a super sharp 14-42mm kit lens. Additionally, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 offers a multitude of professional features to enhance your creativity, including artistic filters, the ability to shoot in RAW and JPEG, built-in Wi-Fi, and 1080p/30fps HD video.