The Olympus FE-4020 is the perfect camera for a family road trip.

The new Olympus FE-4020 ($149.99) and FE-47 ($119.99) models must have been designed with road trips in mind. They come with 14 megapixels and up to 5x optical zoom as well as a host of on-camera features to make taking pictures simple — no matter what.

Come Back Here, I’m Trying to Take a Picture!
One of the sanity savers on any road trip is the pit stop. Hopefully there’s a scenic, historically significant and very cool place to get out, stretch little legs and use a clean potty. But, stretching legs and standing still for pictures don’t usually go together very well, so AF Tracking keeps kids, pets and other fast-moving objects continually bright and in focus so you can easily capture great shots. There’s even a specially designed AF Tracking “Pet Mode” for animal lovers.

Say Cheese. Once More…
There’s nothing more annoying (for the people in front of the camera as well as the picture taker) than having to take ten retakes to try to get everyone in focus. All FE cameras feature Advanced Face Detection, which reduces the chance of blurred subjects in pictures by distinguishing between people’s faces and the background. It tracks up to 16 faces within the image area and automatically focuses and optimizes exposure for sharp, brilliant portrait pictures (ideal for large family or group photos).

Everyone, Get Together. Closer…
Some of the best road trip pictures take place beside busy highways. And, being unable to back away from your subject has always been a challenge. Now, thanks to wide-angle zoom lens technology, it’s easy to capture everything and everyone – including group shots at weddings, family reunions and dinner parties or your extended family proudly smiling in front of Mount Rushmore. The FE-4020’s versatile lens starts extremely wide and goes to 4x. The FE-47 features a 5x zoom lens.

When Can We See the Pictures?
Are your Photoshop skills a little rusty? Do you usually depend on software to customize your pictures after you return home from the trip? In-camera Creative Filters, called Magic Filter, enable you to enhance and customize images as they’re being captured. This translates into more fun and flexibility as customization is no longer limited to using expensive and time-consuming computer software (which you probably don’t have on the trip). The new Magic Filter includes:

• Pop Art – Enhance and saturate colors to create vivid, high-impact pictures that express the joyful, lighthearted feeling of the Pop Art style of the 1960s;
• Pin Hole – Reduce the peripheral brightness of an image as though it were shot through a pin hole, connecting the viewer intimately with the subject at the center;
• Fish-Eye – Emulates the wide-angle of a fish-eye lens by taking extremely wide, hemispherical images and magnifying the center of the frame; and
• Drawing – Turn your image into a sketch outline for children to color. This is my personal favorite. Imagine getting to color and personalize memories as they happen — not to mention some quiet time from the back seat!

Honey, Do You Remember What Setting That Was?
The FE cameras’ Intelligent Auto Mode automatically identifies what you are shooting (Portrait, Landscape, Night + Portrait, Macro or Sports) and adjusts settings to capture the best quality results depending on the situation. Keep your eyes and mind on what’s in front of you, let your camera do all the technical thinking and take incredible shots like a pro.

Did Anyone See the Manual?
Enhanced Help Guides are built right into the cameras to make learning about digital photography simple for everyone, and no manual to accidentally leave at home. The Menu and Scene Guides help with everything from camera settings and features to adjusting ISO and white balance settings (using the Program Auto mode), right on the LCD. Additionally, Exposure Compensation lets you preview and select various exposure effects on a live, multi-frame window on the LCD before snapping the shot, so you know exactly what an image will look like when adjustments are made.

Just Wait ‘Til I Put This on Facebook!
And, the FE cameras let you capture AVI movies with sound that are easy to share with family and friends via email or on social networking websites. All Spring 2010 digital compact cameras, including the FE series, will offer the new OLYMPUS [ib] software. The new software includes photography workflow, browsing, editing and unique photo-organizing functions. You can organize your photos by person with automatic face recognition technology, by location with a Geotagging function or by event. The name [ib] stands for image bridging, image browsing and image brightening. The new software will be available for Windows operating systems only.