Olympus SP-570 Ultra Zoom - Expert Reviews

Review summary: This 'superzoom' compact looks more like a digital SLR camera

Verdict: A huge competition-battering zoom lens is the SP-570UZ's reason for being, so it's disappointing that it's sluggish to respond - and for sharp images it's impossible to shoot handheld at maximum zoom. That aside, the camera is sturdy, feature-packed ...

Review summary: How does the Olympus SP-570 UZ compare in a now-crowded marketplace?

Pros: Zoom ring, Raw support, long lens

Cons: Exposures too light, fringing, EVF not as good as others

Verdict: The SP-570's decent EVF and good zoom ring help it to stand out from the others; however it lacks the finesse of the Nikon P80, particularly in terms of image quality. Overall it's a case of mixed blessings from Olympus.

Pros: Lots of helpful and useful features

Cons: Slow ; big ; manual zoom ring on lens not responsive enough ; can't zoom in movie capture

Verdict: Poor performance diminishes the Olympus SP-570 UZ's potential as an otherwise solid megazoom.

Review summary: How does this super zoom perform?

Pros: Great range of options, simple to use for novices, options for advanced users, good build quality

Cons: Price, electronic view finder not fantastic, needs xD-Picture Card (not supplied), battery life, image quality can suffer

Verdict: Wide range of options and solid build quality are offset by image problems through the compromises needed to pack this much lens into this small a body