Olympus SP-570 UZ review

Last year, Olympus launched the SP-550 UZ, which packed a record-breaking 18x zoom: the biggest ever to grace a compact camera.

Panasonic and Fujifilm have subsequently matched this specification, but Olympus has edged out into the lead once again with the SP-570 UZ. Its 20x zoom extends even further in both directions to give a 26-520mm zoom range. With a 1cm macro focus and effective optical stabilisation built in, this lens appears to have it all.

Olympus claims the SP-570 UZ is ideal for sports photography, citing not just its enormous zoom but also its performance. Its continuous mode can capture 20 five-megapixel shots or 30 three-megapixel shots in around 2 seconds, equating to 7.8fps and 13.5fps respectively. It can even buffer pictures in order to save five shots from before the shutter button was pressed. However, the camera takes up to 20 seconds to recover from these flurries of activity, during which time its controls are inaccessible. At the full 10-megapixel resolution, continuous shooting is limited to 0.8fps for six shots and isn't available at all in RAW mode. In the single-drive mode, we measured a 3.2-second gap between shots, rising to 3.8 with the flash enabled. Most other ultra-zoom cameras manage a shot every one to two seconds.

The controls are a little sluggish, too. Zoom is adjusted via a lens ring but it's not a mechanical control and can be lethargic and inaccurate. Pressing the Function button brings up lots of settings on the screen for quick adjustment, shifting the preview image over to the electronic viewfinder. It's a good system, but it's annoying that there's a two-second delay before the settings appear.

Our image-quality tests revealed photos that looked decent when viewed in isolation but didn't compare well to the competition. Detail was a little soft at the wide end of the zoom and much worse at the telephoto end, with a lack of sharpness exacerbated by strong chromatic aberrations. Fujifilm's S100FS (reviewed in What's New, Shopper 247) was able to capture far more detail in distant subjects despite its smaller 14.3x zoom. Colours were fairly subdued, although Olympus's tendency not to over-process photos will please purists. Skin tones were a little erratic, though. There was a little noise even at low ISO speeds, and while ISO 800 still turned in passable results, ISO 1600 shots were poor.

Pretty much every aspect of the SP-570 UZ falls short of the standard set by Fujifilm's S100FS, but it also costs significantly less. At this price its stiffest competition comes from Panasonic's DMC-FZ18. Their low-light performance is on a par with each other, but in brighter conditions the DMC-FZ18 produces sharper details, especially in telephoto shots. The DMC-FZ18 is much faster, too, and the SP-570 UZ's extra zoom isn't enough to redress the balance.