Customer Reviews

Olympus SP-570UZ 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this camera early in April, from another vendor. I didn't want to wait until Amazon's April 15 release date! My newfound hobby is photographing high school rugby games, so I am by no means a professional and truly don't know much at all about photography at all. I had been using a Kodak Easyshare with 12x zoom with good results, but I wanted to get closer and I wanted faster sequential shooting. Yet, I didn't want to buy a $1,000 plus SLR camera. After all, I'm not trying to win a Pulitzer. I'm not frantically concerned with crisp color, and I don't have time to learn a million functions. I just want to get the "money shot" - a player with ball in hand, hair flying, face in grimace, muscles straining, dirt clods and sweat droplets spraying around - you know what I mean. After some research I discover that my Easyshare, and this Olympus, are in a class of camera called point-and-shoot super zoom - yeah! That's exactly what I wanted! And THIS camera, at 20x zoom gets you closer than any other out there. So I was sold. And wow, are my pictures with this camera GREAT! I started with the pre-programmed sports mode, but found that my best action shots were in the "P" mode, at a speed of H1 (and that's not even the fastest speed!), with image quality = fine. I saved these settings as a "my mode" and can adjust brightness/exposure with the dial at the top of the camera if I need to. Other than the great money shots I am getting with this camera, I like the battery life. I have taken up to 1,500 pictures at a time without having to change the battery, and I use the screen a lot. I also like that I am not bound to a monopod - it's light, it's point and shoot, I can move around and adjust things quickly and catch just about all the action. The only thing I don't like is the amount of time it takes for sequentially shot pictures to "save". It can be frustrating to wait on the camera to save while action is going on that you can't capture. This was a problem with my Easyshare, too, and I suspect is a problem with any point and shoot with sequential shooting capabilities. The only reason I'd ever upgrade to an SLR is that this does not appear to be an issue with those types of cameras. If my fascination with sports photography continues to grow, I imagine someday I will buy an SLR. But for now, I am really satisfied with this Olympus and it's 20x zoom and dozens fps shooting speed!

Tried the camera out for the past 4-5 days, under various conditions. All and all, for the price and the functions/ability this camera offers, it is a solid camera.
First of all, this is obviously no SLR camera. The aperture and the shutter speed are more limited than I would prefer. As such, it probably might turn off people that are looking for a SLR styled camera. While the high ISO values allow you to take pictures in low light conditions, the noise reduction is simply not enough to make those pictures look presentable. Image stabilization was no match for my cat in those low light situations, even with high ISO values. Fast shutter speed remains the key against blurry pictures.
The selling point of this camera, the 20X zoom, works as advertised. The zooming ring works fine, but it might not be sensitive enough if you are trying to zoom meticulously. There are 4 AF modes to choose from, ranging from giving the camera total control of choosing the object to focus on (not as "smart" as I like), face recognition, center focusing, to basically using the arrow keys to manually point at the area you want to focus. Also, there is a manual focus option, though not very practical to use, IMO.
The "High-Speed Sequential Shooting" I think is handicapped by the slow writing speed of the XD-Card. Perhaps the H XD card might make a different, but the M XD card was simply too slow. I have yet to try the pre-capture mode.
The LCD is big and clear, and you have the option of using the viewfinder window to take pictures, though it is not a "real" viewfinder window.
The battery life on this thing is amazing. It would take some heavy shooting to drain the battery out in one day (of course, that depends on the kind battery you use).
All in all, there are goods and bads to this camera, but for the price and the functions that you got, I think it is a good camera for what it is designed for.

As a pretty happy owner of Olympus SP550UZ, I borrowed this latest version, SP570UZ to tested it out for several days under various conditions. I immediately saw few similarity and few non-similarity with this camera to the SP550UZ that I owned. From now on, I am dropping the SP and UZ reference and just calling them "550" and "570".

Let me hit the good points first. First of all, I thought the capture speed and the write speed of 570 have definitely improved over my 550 camera. Of course, this is still not lighting fast but its an improvement. I think the weak xD card is the blame anyway as I was using their "H" card all the way. Second, you definitely see the difference between 28mm wide for 550 and 26mm wide for 570. Only 2mm difference but you can see it. Not much difference between the 18x and 20x though. Like the 550, the 570 is very easy to hold, handled and grip. The 570 is slighter larger but the weight felt the same. Major improvement I really like in control for the 570 lies in the fact that you can make certain adjustments like flash compensation right off the back LCD menu now instead of going through the menu system in the 550. The shadow adjustment mode does work pretty well under ideal condition. But not all that well depending on the extreme cases. Face detection system works well although I am not really a great fan of this. Still for both features, it better then not having one at all. Photos came out looking very good under most condition and I think they improved the color capture for red which was somewhat of a problem for the 550. The dual image stabilizer proves to be excellent once again and capturing at extreme zoom proves to be quite good as long as there is enough light. But those are the highlights of the good things about this camera. I am not going to bother going down the specs since Amazon have been so kind to provide it for all to read. One of the previous reviewers wrote that the battery life quite excellent and I do concur with that. But there is a reason for that in my next paragraph.

The bad things about this cameras lies in three elements. One is that the electronic viewfinder is harder to use thanks to the increase reliance on the LCD that is almost on all the time. I like using the viewfinder as an old film SLR guy but if needed, I can adjust to this. Second element lies in the zooming...there is no auto-zoom. All the zooming are done by hand - your hand that is and to be honest, it is not an exact science here. While you still got the auto-focus, you have to manually zoom up and down. The lens control actually feel pretty "rubbery" to borrowed another person's term. Worst, with my 550, I can zoom and fire away one handed. There is no way I can do that with 570 since one hand is on the shutter while other hand have to adjust the zoom. Unless you got super long fingers, most normal folks would have to do it two handed. The lack of the feel of a firm control in zooming is quite puzzling and I supposed anyone can get a handled on it with enough practice but still felt pretty weak. A whole star was taken from the review on this feature. I wasn't too impressed. By the way, this is why the battery life have improve...camera no longer have to zoom, you have to do it yourself. (And they save weight by not adding the auto-zoom device into the camera.) Finally, Olympus totally failed to improved their camcorder system for the UZ series. Like the 550, 570 is light-years behind...let say Canon S5 IS in terms of taking video. The videos taken by Olympus 570 is okay if the camera cost $150 but totally unacceptable for $450 plus camera. It can be pretty grainy and sound was pretty weak. Another star gone for that.

I supposed I could go on but I wrote enough. I am sure a more professional reviews on the Internet is forth coming and anyone interested can continue to investigate. I am not sure if this camera is really right for inexperience photographer or even for a casual one. It quite advanced piece of digital camera but its not really well designed. Manual zooming is nice as an option but not as a permanent condition. And the video recording for a camera of this price range is really pathetic. Personally, I can live without the video but zooming feature is a step backward to the 20th century...not a step forward for the 21st.

I have owned the Olympus SP-57OUZ Digital Camera for a little over a month, and continue to find reasons to be very satisfied with my choice. For years, I was wed to Canon SLR's (pre-digital), and was content but not thrilled when I switched to digital. My first camera was an HP850, which seems ancient to today's standards, but served me well. I thought I might make the leap to a Canon digital SLR, but didn't want to pay the high prices nor carry the extra weight around, or fuss around changing lenses.

When I read the initial (pre-release) reviews of tis Olympus, it had all the bells and whistles I wanted, at a decent price (Amazon's price was best), and so it became my choice. I am thrilled at everything this Olympus is capable of, especially shooting in low light, at full telephoto extention. It has image stabilization, and 20x zoom power, which I found to render excellent pictures at my granddaughter's ballet recital. I was shooting from about the sixth row, more than forty feet away, and was able to get clear candid closet-ups of her during the performance.

I also enjoy the Olympus' ability to take in-camera panoramas, and then stich them together seamlessly. I have used this feature using a tripod and hand-held, and either way has produced excellent results. I wholeheartedly recommend this cutting-edge camera.

After owning an Olympus C-3030 for a few years and getting several comments on the excellent photos it produced, I was ready to upgrade to something with more features, zoom, resolution and compatibility.

I first purchased a Canon A650-IS bundle for Christmas and was immedaitely displeased with the graininess of indoor shots without the flash. I know Canon makes good digicams, but in the megapixel race, I felt they just crammed too many pixels onto the sensor to produce quality low-light images. So, back it want.

Now, the SP-570UZ is not the 'be all and end all' in prosumer-level digital cameras, but for what it is designed to do, it does, for the most part, pretty darned well. The range of the lens alone is fantastic. I can get excellent wide-angle shots and wonderful zoomed close-ups. Perfect for a typical consumer wanting decent quality shots of kid's sports, snapshots and outdoor landscape photos. The various preset scene modes are fairly good and I've done well with sunset/sunrise shots.

I have had the camera for a month or so and had photos from my wedding, honeymoon, softball games and other family events turn out awesome. There is still some annoying noise in low-light situations, but not nearly as bad as the Canon. I can definitely live with it and I have found some ways to deal with it afterward that make the shot acceptable for larger prints. The zoom ring takes a little time to get used to and it does lag a bit and can make it hard to make fine adjustments, but I understand there may be a firmware update that helps with this issue, so I am crossing my fingers.

The night-scene mode is great for those cityscape and dusk shots. I really love the fact that I can shoot in RAW (however, I still have yet to work alot with RAW images), because, as my wife says I "just can't leave the image alone" prior to printing. The panoramic mode that can be used with Olympus cards is neat and does a good job stitching in-camera, but some scenes can cause a portion of the stitched image to skew quite a bit, requireing a re-do.

One drawback is the fact that it will only take xD Picture cards, but this I can live with as well. The Olympus "color" I have come to love is still present and so far, my prints from my HP Photosmart C-7180 look phenomonal!

I am giving it 5 stars, not due to it being perfect, but for perfectly satisfying all my primary reqquirements, for the overall cost, and then some. This camera will be a perfect carry-along P&S camera before I break down and get a DSLR to extend my photographic capabilities.

Very, very good camera while it was working.
Unfortunately, it just died without celebrating its second birthday, and with 200 US repair charge, my guess us by by Olympus cameras, hello Canon and others.

Hands down, this is the most flexible of the dozen or so (film and digital) cameras that I have owned.

But it is also the easiest to use over a wide variety of situations. And the 20x optical zoom is just amazing, equivalent of 26mm to 520mm on a classical 35mm camera. For 3-megapixel shots, there's a 30x "soft zoom" mode that combines 1.5x digital zoom with the optical zoom, without loss of resolution.

The one downside is that the small (1/2.33") sensor does exhibit quite a bit of color noise in low-light situations. To be fair, it takes usable pictures in lighting, and at distances, where none of my previous cameras would have gotten anything at all.

Turn the mode dial to Auto, and you have the consummate point and shoot camera. The things you need to master to take good snapshots in most situations are: taking off the lens cap, turning on the power switch, pointing the camera, and pressing the shutter button.

From there, you can mix and match other features and controls wherever your photographic needs, sophistication, and interests take you. One button to enable the flash. One ring to control the zoom. One switch for manual focus. Program, Aperture, or Shutter priority modes. Exposure compensation. Over 20 specialized "scene" modes, such as Portrait, Smile Shot, Fireworks, Candlelight, ... One button to switch to Macro or SuperMacro (1cm) focusing.

Flash metering is through the lens and there is a hot shoe that interfaces with external Olympus flashes for TTL metering, which seems quite accurate.

The camera has enough buttons (and a multi-purpose "setting" dial) to provide an efficient interface for all the common controls an advanced amateur is likely to want. And it also provides a very general menu interface that provides direct control of even more camera parameters for users who need it, without having to remember which button controls what. Exposure and flash exposure compensation. Bracketing (3 or 5 shots, with 0.3, 0.7, or 1.0 steps). Drive: single shot, bracket, continuous, high speed (13.5 frames/sec.), time lapse. Sharpness, contrast, and saturation adjustment. Metering "intelligent," spot, or area mode. Autofocus face, "intelligent," spot, or area mode. Fulltime or predictive auto-focus. And so on.

An Olympus feature I like is MyMode, where I can pre-establish four combinations of settings that I expect to use a lot, and get to them just by selecting one of my four modes.

No wonder the "Quick Start Guide" is 100 pages.

NB: Don't be fooled: The $10.00 "Instruction Manual" that can be purchased separately from Olympus is just the "Quick Start Guide" in plastic covers. There does not seem to be ANY official source for the rest of the information an owner might want.

Shooting pictures at 5 megapixels, image quality under all conditions seems to meet or exceed that of my older Olympus C-750. (And it's dramatically better in every single dimension than the Olympus C-2100 I reviewed back in 2001.) I expect to be able to crop pictures normally and still make 8"x10" prints without any visible digital artifacts. As with all my digital cameras, I'll use Photoshop to fix up pictures to my taste; I've played with, but don't expect to seriously use, the 570UZ's in-camera editing facilities.

Oh, yes, the 570UZ is also a pretty decent little camcorder. Just turn the mode dial to Video, and you can shoot videos at VGA (640x480) or qVGA (320x240) resolution at either 15 or 30 frames per second. Everything the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder can do, in a package that's only a little larger, with 20x optical instead of 2x digital zoom, and only one button you have to understand. But with the potential of using most of the camera controls described above, if you want to. Because it records to a flash memory card (and the maximum xD card is 2GB), video chews up memory pretty fast: Less than 19 minutes/2GB at full resolution and frame rate, just over 50 minutes/2GB at minimum res and rate.

Just got the camera last week. Seems like it will be all it says it is and more. Just a quick note for anyone concerned about zoom lag. If you install the Olympus software that came with the camera on your computer you can access firmware updates for the camera. Olympus has very recently done a firmware update that added a language and improves the zoom response on the camera. Zoom response seems improved since I updated my camera.

My Sony F828 was stolen, and I was looking for a replacement. Having used the SP-570uz for a bit, I am pleased with the camera. Before purchasing I was aware of the operation of the zoom lens being a little spongy - it doesn't have the same professional feeling that the Sony has. I have never used the Xd memory card before, and wished Olympus would use the SD card. Still, having hundred's of pics avaliable on a 2mb card is plenty for me.

My needs were to have a compact camera that can take great shots indoors. These super zoom camera's are pretty good, but not all of them have a hot shoe, which was the deal killer for my needs.

Holding the camera is a pleasure. You might be surprised how comfortable it is to hold.

In addition, the wide lens is a great feature.

The lens cap does come off pretty easily.

I think these companies that are producing these super zoom camera's are hitting a sweet spot for people like me, who do not want to spend over $1000 on a camera with a quality len's, but don't want to use a super compact camera because of its obvious limitations. I carry a Canon SD450 all the time, and enjoy that camera too.

I believe most of these super zoom camera's can take wonderful day-time outdoor pics, but I need a camera that can attach an external flash for all the indoor pics I take.

Everyone has their specific requirements, and this camera fit mine.

I've read so many good things about this camera that I almost hate to be a detractor. But as a hard-shooting amateur, I find this camera frustrating in so many ways that I'm already seeking a replacement after just a few months.

Some of the big things are OK (build, weight, menu structure, view finder, LCD, battery life, memory) but some of the biggest things are not (auto-focus speed and accuracy, image stabilization, lens, menu defaults, controls, zoom). But even if you can live with some of the subjective choices made by Olympus on the big things, their choices on many of the little things are pretty frustrating.

The bottom line:

- I frequently miss shots with this camera.

- I frequently get blurry pictures across many lighting conditions.

- Even when I get the shot, the images, while not terrible, are sub-standard in many ways (and I don't think this is a subjective read on my part, nor do I think I have a defective unit).

This is not my first Olympus UZ. That was the Olympus C-2100 2MP Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom, with which I took about 16,000 pictures over the last 6 1/2 years. That camera was a pioneer in the UZ category, featuring 10X optical zoom (100X digital), the earliest image stabilization and a fabulous lens made by Canon. Its only real downside was the 2.1MP resolution (which was at the low end even as it was introduced). Mine ultimately developed some dead pixels on the sensor which led me into a very quick search for a replacement.

I'd had such good luck with the Olympus, that I didn't even consider other brands. After reading a handful of reviews which labeled this camera the best of its class, I didn't even hesitate. I assumed that time had improved most of the features, and that the learning curve would be fairly small. The latter proved true, the former did not.

At 10MP, resolution is not an issue. The ability to save RAW and JPG simultaneously is fabulous, though slow (I don't use it regularly). The view finder and LCD are great. Battery life (with hybrid rechargeables and a few tweaks to the default settings) is superb. Some people complain about the menu structure, but there are a lot of features on this camera. I think the menu structure is pretty good. And this camera does feel good in the hand. The built-in flash is also much more usable than the one in its predecessor.

That's where the good ends.

The first questionable thing I noticed is that the camera was making unexpected decisions on which portion of the frame to use for auto-focusing. These decisions were not good. I have a whole bunch of early shots with some arbitrary element of the shot -- often far from the center -- in focus while everything else is fuzzy. This turns out to be a "feature" called "iESP" mode in which, according to the manual, "The camera determines which subject within the screen to focus on." I quickly disabled it in favor of the "spot" mode (center of the frame gets the focus). There are additional modes available, and though I realize there will be times when iESP is a usable feature, it simply should not be the default.

This also turns out to be the first of several senseless defaults that I discovered as I worked through the menus. These include:

- Movies default to recording without sound.

- The "record view" (which shows each picture for a second or two immediately after taking it) defaults to ON, but also defaults to the LCD screen even if you're using the viewfinder, rendering it virtually useless. By the time you get the camera away from your eye to view the captured image, it's gone.

- When using the viewfinder, by default the control panel is visible on the LCD. Unless you change settings frequently, this is a needless drain on the batteries.

Once I got the auto-focus mode changed, that's when I began to realize just how poor it is. It's slow, frequently inaccurate, and performs especially poorly in anything other than direct sunlight. On my previous Olympus, I had become accustomed to a quick and perfect focus every time. With the 570, it sometimes takes three or four tries before it can focus, and it almost requires a hard edge somewhere within the AF target mark. This may help explain why iESP is the default: it allows the camera to search for hard edges in the frame and use those to get a quicker focus lock. Unfortunately, it also means weird auto-focus decisions.

I appreciate the extended zoom range of this camera, especially at the wide angle end. But this comes with serious trade-offs.

First, the lens has some serious pin-cushioning problems which even zooming cannot completely alleviate. I often have to use my camera to take pictures of images in square frames. This camera makes that an especially difficult task.

Second, at the telephoto end, autofocus becomes a painful problem. I also take lots of pictures from the stands at baseball games, and this camera performs very poorly in that type of setting. Even worse, the image stabilization is of very little help. In my previous Olympus camera, handheld was always an option -- even at the 100X end. With this, even a tripod cannot guarantee that the image you see in the view finder will be the image you get. The simple act of pressing the shutter button is often enough to make it reset, which is very frustrating.

These problems render the optional digital zoom portion as essentially worthless. When all is said and done, the usable telephoto zoom on this camera is about the same as the earlier model (though there is definitely more useful range at the wide angle end if you can live with the pin-cushioning).

You will see mention in almost every review of the zoom ring on the lens. Most reviewers dismiss it as "not too bad." I have to disagree. It's very, very bad in design and implementation.

Some photographers may be able to adjust to its quirks, but I find them simply unacceptable. First and foremost, the zoom does not respond exactly to the turning of the ring. Sometimes it stops before you stop moving your hand, other times it continues zooming after you have stopped moving your hand. Moving it slowly sometimes results in a slower zoom, but the threshold between slow and fast zooming is hard to find. It is possible to move the ring and get no change whatsoever in the zoom. As a result, accuracy with the zoom is nearly impossible.

Though the concept is a throwback to the old SLRs of my childhood, the more modern alternative (a small lever near the shutter release which can be operated by the index finger of your shooting hand) is far superior. The ring on the 570 essentially forces the use of two hands, and even then cripples your ability to frame a shot as you wish on the fly.

And finally, the zoom ring turns the wrong direction. Counter-clockwise zooms in, clockwise zooms out. I am forever getting this wrong -- another reason for missing shots.

This last piece, the direction to turn the control, is just one of many annoying smaller things found in this camera. Among these are:

- You must remove the lens cap when the camera is powered on. I prefer to leave the power on with the lens cap on, then just slip the lens cap off when I'm ready to shoot. That's not possible with this camera.

- If you forget to take the lens cap off, you get an error message, the camera locks up, and you must cycle the power off and on. At a minimum, this triples the boot-up time.

- The edge of the lens cap is very close to the surface of the lens. Finger smudges on the lens have become a very real and common problem.

- There are some very subtle differences between the "P" mode and the "Auto" mode of shooting -- limitations which you may not realize until you look at the pictures later (I used "P" initially, then switched to "Auto" when I discovered some subtle improvements to the results).

- The so-called "smile detector" feature is worthless. Don't buy this camera for that. It just plain doesn't work unless all the conditions are perfect (a rarity).

- The camera sounds are LOUD, even at their quietest setting. The alternative, "silent mode", is so quiet that you can't tell when the shutter has snapped.

- The shutter snap sound is artificial, and there is no tactile sense that the shutter has snapped. The older Olympus had a soft mechanical click, and it was essential. Over time, this -- along with shutter lag -- have served to differentiate between the professional DSLR class and the amateur UltraZoom. There is no question that this camera is aimed at amateurs (and not even at a "prosumer" class user).

- When reviewing photos, they are displayed in either the viewfinder or on the LCD based on which you were using to take photos. Viewing pictures is difficult in the viewfinder, and there should be an option to specify that the LCD is always used for reviewing. But there is no such setting.

Finally, when you get used to all of the quirks on this camera and get ready to take a family picture, you will discover that this camera does not support the use of a remote control. There is a time delay shutter release, but that's just not the same.

If I had known this, I would not have purchased this camera.

I suppose that none of these things would be deal-breakers if the image quality was as exceptional as I have become used to with Olympus cameras. But I find the images soft and the colors somewhat wan. I came to discover that there are various menu settings which allow these characteristics to be adjusted (picture mode, sharpness, contrast, and saturation), but that seems ridiculous to me. I want crisp images and accurate colors. That should be the default (and only) option on the camera. Even after I have adjusted these settings at great length, the image quality remains quite flat.

An additional frustration does creep in with regard to the menus. Though I find their organization to be quite easy to navigate, I find myself frustrated because certain menu options are unavailable based on mode settings. For example, I don't understand why the "Camera Menu" is grayed out and unavailable when the camera is in "Auto" mode.

If you are drawn to this camera for some of the gimmicky features I have not mentioned, I recommend that you think twice. Yes, there are lots of scene modes and image preview/editing options, as well as extensive bracketing and shooting parameters to adjust. But I consider these to be mainly toys, and I do not use them. If you are shooting portraits in a studio somewhere, such nuanced options may come in handy (but you probably wouldn't want an ultra-zoom in such a setting anyway). If you are taking pictures out in the real world, there is just not enough time to decide on and set the correct scene mode before you snap.

Two final things: First, the camera contains some internal memory which allows you to take pictures without using the optional xD memory card. But be careful not to lose the USB cable which comes with the camera. The camera-end connector is not standard, and without that cable there is no way to offload those pictures. (I found this out the hard way.) Second, though the quality of video clips is acceptable, the zoom range is severely hobbled when in the video mode. Full-range zoom is not possible when shooting videos.

As you can tell, the SP-570UZ has been a disappointment to me almost from the moment it came out of the box. It may be that this is truly the best camera currently available in this class, but if that is the case, the class has regressed since the C-2100UZ was released in 2001. That would be a shame.

*** UPDATE January 2010 ***

I've been using this camera for 18 months and I absolutely hate it. But let me correct a few small things from the review.

1. Even though I eventually found the USB cord, I also discovered that it's possible to "back up" photos stored internally to the xD card. Clunky, but it works.

2. Out of frustration with image quality, I began experimenting more systematically with the scene modes. They are uniformly worthless, and the difference in results between them is almost laughably invisible.

3. Battery life has turned out to be excellent. It's a cold comfort.

4. Because of poor performance in anything other than direct sunlight, I tend to avoid cloudy days and use the flash much more often. No camera should make you want to do either of these things. The results remain quite disappointing.

5. Video quality is especially poor. There's also a weird limitation on zooming. It appears to be only digital, and as you zoom in, the picture degrades very quickly. It's nice to have no arbitrary time limit on video length, but when the quality is this bad, using it for that purpose should be avoided. (My cheap, Flip-style camcorder gets WAY better results.)

For now I'm stuck with this dog while saving up for something better (a D90 perhaps).