Olympus AZ-2 (2004)

The Olympus AZ-2 is a minor, entry-level digital compact announced at PMA 2004 in February of that year. It was the second and final model in Olympus's short-lived AZ-series, a basic, budget line that sat clearly below the company's more prominent Camedia C-series. In the same announcement period, Olympus was pushing the higher-megapixel C-60 Zoom (5.1 MP) and C-50 Zoom (5.0 MP). The AZ-2 was the 3.2 MP budget option beneath them, aimed at first-time digital camera buyers.

Spec-wise, it was a straightforward point-and-shoot. It had a 1/2.7" CCD sensor, a 3× zoom lens (5.8-17.4 mm, equivalent to 35-105 mm, f/3.0-5.0), and a fixed 1.5" LCD with no viewfinder. It offered auto exposure with Portrait, Sports, and Night Scene modes, ISO 64-400, multi-pattern or spot metering, and a macro mode that closed in to 2 cm. Movies were possible at 320×240 and 15 fps in QuickTime Motion JPEG. Storage was on xD-Picture Card, with 16 MB of internal memory built in, and power came from two CR-V3 lithium batteries.

The body had a brushed aluminum front panel and a bright "AZ-2 Zoom" label near the shutter button - the model's most distinctive visual cue. HiFI-Stereo (November 1992, p.159) is sometimes cited in connection with this model, but that reference predates the camera by over a decade and appears to be a catalog artifact rather than a genuine review of the AZ-2. No substantive period review of this camera has surfaced in the archive.

The record on the AZ-2 is otherwise thin. DigitalCameraReview.com noted it was a competent budget compact but not a standout on image quality against its contemporaries, and early impressions suggested it handled well for its class. No full review was ever produced by dpreview — it covered the camera only via press release. No original price, weight, dimensions, or production run dates are documented. It remains a modest, somewhat forgotten footnote to Olympus's 2004 lineup.