The banner feature for Olympus' new prosumer model is 18x optical zoom-an incredible engineering feat for a point-and-shoot camera. While the freedom to go from wide (28mm) to super-telephoto (504mm) is swell, this camera also includes dozens of other remarkable extras. The SP-550UZ is surprisingly lightweight, features easy access to common functions, a superbly useful optical viewfinder, and a 7.1-megapixel image sensor that grabs images with clarity and sharpness just a notch below low-end SLRs. Auto-focus is flaky at full-zoom, however, and reliance on relatively slow xD cards means long write lags when shooting in RAW mode.
Review: Olympus SP-550 UZ
The banner feature for Olympus’ new prosumer model is 18x optical zoom-an incredible engineering feat for a point-and-shoot camera. While the freedom to go from wide (28mm) to super-telephoto (504mm) is swell, this camera also includes dozens of other remarkable extras. The SP-550UZ is surprisingly lightweight, features easy access to common functions, a superbly useful […]
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WIRED
Huge zoom and good wide-angle coverage. RAW mode. Bright, informative optical viewfinder. Effective shake-reduction. Good detail at low ISO. Camera seems to say, "I'm a capable, skilled photographer" not "I'm a photo n00b. Please mug me and take my stuff."
TIRED
xD media only. Auto-focus can get confused on what it should be focusing on. No hot shoe for external flash. Olympus Master software (required to process RAW files) has clunky, obtuse UI.
- Camera Resolution: 7.1 megapixels
- Optical Zoom: 18x
- Digital Zoom: 5.6x