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Olympus Stylus SZ-15 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £146
inc VAT

A great price for a 24x zoom, but let down by its noisy sensor and slow processor

Specifications

1/2.3in 16.0-megapixel sensor, 24.0x zoom (25-600mm equivalent), 221g

http://www.wexphotographic.com

The 24x zoom in the Olympus SZ-15 is the biggest available from a pocket-sized camera – not bad considering the sub-£150 price. It’s a little chunky at 30mm from the front of the lens to the LCD screen, but this gives room for a proper handgrip that allows comfortable one-handed operation.

Olympus Stylus SZ-15

There’s no mode dial or rear wheel, which slows down access to the controls, but there isn’t a huge number available anyway and this is a camera that will spend most of its time in fully automatic mode.

Olympus Stylus SZ-15

There’s nothing wrong with simple controls, but the SZ15’s poor performance is harder to forgive. Autofocus was slow, taking over half a second between pressing the shutter button and capturing a shot. Photos took about a second to appear on the screen after capture. The net result was that it took 2.8 seconds between shots, and slowed even further to 4.6 seconds after capturing four photos.

Olympus Stylus SZ-15

Continuous mode wasn’t much better, lumbering along at 0.4 seconds. Other modes achieved much faster performance by dropping the resolution to 2.7 megapixels. One captured 21 shots at 15.3fps, taking eight seconds to same them. Another continued indefinitely at 2fps. These options are welcome, and the resolution is high enough for sharing online. However, image quality was compromised by heavy digital sharpening and a tendency to use excessively fast shutter speeds. Taking a 16-megapixel photo and resizing it to fit a computer screen produced much crisper details.

IMAGE AND VIDEO QUALITY

Shooting in bright light, these 16-megapixel photos looked pretty good on close inspection, too. Details were precise, and while focus deteriorated a little at the long end of the zoom, this was compensated by the extra range of this 25-600mm (equivalent) lens compared to rival cameras that max out at between 480 and 550mm.

The lens excelled for macro photography, too. While other cameras’ macro modes only work at the widest zoom position, the SZ-15 has a Super Macro mode that zooms in a little and still focuses on subjects that are 3cm away. This made subjects that are 2cm wide fill the frame, and unlike rival cameras, the SZ-15’s lens wasn’t so close that it cast a shadow across the subject. It can also focus on subjects that are 40cm away when the lens is zoomed right in, capturing subjects that are 5cm wide – other cameras are limited to between one and two metres for tele-macro photography.

Olympus Stylus SZ-15 sample shot
We’ve no complaints about this wide-angle shot. Details are crisp and colours are faithful

Olympus Stylus SZ-15 sample shot
The Super Macro mode is capable of stunning results

Olympus Stylus SZ-15 sample shot
Image quality deteriorates as the ISO speed goes up, though. Even at ISO 200, details are beginning to look mushy

Olympus Stylus SZ-15 sample shot
By ISO 1600, they’re a mess

Using the full zoom extension in in anything other than direct sunlight made the camera raise the ISO speed to avoid camera shake. Even modest ISO speeds of 200 and up resulted in heavy noise reduction that replaced fine textures with smudges. By ISO 400, details looked decidedly scruffy. As a result, the FZ-15 took last place in the majority of our comparative image quality tests.

It fared even worse in our video tests. Recordings are limited to 720p resolution, and even in bright light, shady areas fizzed with noise. Low-light clips were gloomy and grainy, and soundtracks were thin and scratchy. The inefficient M-JPEG codec generated huge files, at about 250MB per minute, and clip running times were limited to eight minutes.

CONCLUSION

We love the lens, and we’ve no complaints about the low price. However, there’s little point in considering the SZ-15 when the Panasonic TZ35 is far more capable and only costs a few pounds more.

Basic Specifications

Rating**
CCD effective megapixels16.0 megapixels
CCD size1/2.3in
Viewfindernone
Viewfinder magnification, coverageN/A
LCD screen size3.0in
LCD screen resolution460,000 pixels
Articulated screenNo
Live viewYes
Optical zoom24.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent25-600mm
Image stabilisationoptical, lens based
Maximum image resolution4,608×3,456
File formatsJPEG; AVI (M-JPEG)

Physical

Memory slotSDXC
Mermory supplied38MB internal
Battery typeLi-ion
Battery Life (tested)230 shots
ConnectivityUSB, AV, mini HDMI
Body materialplastic
Lens mountN/A
Focal length multiplierN/A
Kit lens model nameN/A
AccessoriesUSB cable
Weight221g
Size69x108x40mm

Buying Information

Warrantyone year RTB
Price£146
Supplierhttp://www.wexphotographic.com
Detailswww.olympus.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modesauto
Shutter speedauto
Aperture rangef/3 (wide), f/6.9 (tele)
ISO range (at full resolution)100 to 1600
Exposure compensation+/-2 EV
White balanceauto, 4 presets, manual
Additional image controlsnone
Manual focusNo
Closest macro focus3cm
Auto-focus modesmulti/face detect, centre, tracking
Metering modesmulti, centre, face detect
Flashauto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, red-eye reduction
Drive modessingle, continuous, self-timer