With 18x zoom, Olympus' new prosumer model covers a focal range equivalent to an SLR equipped with at least three different lenses, including one of those big-as-a-horse's-leg telephoto jobs.
And the zoom turns out to be more than a gimmick. Several levels of image stabilization help you get reasonably sharp zoomed-in shots without a tripod. A superbly useful optical viewfinder offers further help--holding a camera to your face instead of a couple feet away inherently steadies the camera.
The SP-500UZ packs in everything you'd expect from a prosumer model, including a good selection of manual settings, an on-screen user guide and relatively streamlined access to basic settings such as ISO and white balance. No complaints about the packaging, either--compact styling and a rubberized grip area make the camera a pleasure to hold, and a traveling weight (with batteries) of a little over a pound makes it easy to schlep.
Image quality is better than average for the class. Viewing images at 100 percent revealed only slight blurring and lack of sharpness.
Things we weren't too crazy about: Auto-focusing can be erratic, especially at long zooms. There's no hot shoe for attaching an external flash. And Olympus retains a Sony-like commitment to its xD media card format, which runs too slow to keep up with images captured in RAW mode. (C'mon guys -- even xD co-founder Fuji is giving consumers a choice of xD or SD slots now.)
