Olympus SP-560 UZ

The pre-production model’s Movie mode wasn’t functioning, but the final model is working just fine. There are some pros and cons, but we’ll start with the good stuff. The Olympus SP-560UZ has excellent color reproduction in movies – even better than in still images. Noise also remains low, making the video from this camera the best we’ve seen from an Olympus digital camera in awhile.

The Movie mode is still far from perfect, though. The most annoying quality is that the 18x optical zoom lens and its image stabilization system only work when the audio is turned off, so users are forced to choose whether they want to zoom in on their subjects or hear them. You can’t have it all with the SP-560. But this is an ultra-zoom digital camera; you should be able to use the zoom at all times, without having to sacrifice audio or anything else. Another downside to the Movie mode is its soft focus and finicky metering system that flashes as light and dark subjects move across the frame. There are more details in the Testing/Performance section.

Overall, the Olympus SP-560UZ’s Movie mode is the best we’ve seen from this manufacturer, but its inability to zoom while recording audio is annoying.

Drive / Burst Mode (4.5)
The Drive modes are accessed from the Recording menu in the Manual, Priority, and Program modes. The rainbow of options include Single, Continuous, Hi-Speed 1, Hi-Speed 2, AF Continuous, and Bracketing.

Olympus’ published specs say its normal Burst mode snaps at a rate of 1.2 fps for up to seven shots. Additionally, there are two high-speed modes. The first high-speed mode shrinks images down to 3 megapixels and then snaps away at 7 fps for up to 23 shots.

The second high-speed mode shrinks the images even smaller, to only 1280 x 960 pixels, and clicks away even faster: this is the highly publicized 15 fps Burst mode. It can take up to 40 pictures at a time, but it takes about 12 seconds to record them all to the memory card. Like everything else on this camera, the processing time is awfully slow. There is a Pre-Capture mode that records with the same specs, but captures pictures even before the shutter release button is pushed. Once again, there is a long pause before the camera can capture more pictures. Lag is also apparent when trying to access the photos in Playback mode.

The Continuous AF mode takes a picture about every 1.5 seconds. The Bracketing mode has options to take three or five pictures at exposure value steps of +/- 0.3, +/- 0.7, and +/- 1. This Bracketing mode doesn’t automatically snap a string of pictures like most cameras do, though. Users must hold down the shutter release just like normal Burst mode shooting – so if you want three pictures, hold the shutter release down longer.

Something new on the Olympus SP-560 is the burst folders. After one of the Burst modes is used, the string of pictures taken appears in a folder. To open the folder in the Playback mode, press the image stabilization/burst folder button on top of the camera. This seems like a cool feature, as it helps organize the many pictures taken in a burst. It does take awhile for the camera to access it, and the slow processing times plague this cool feature. The self-timer is available from the bottom of the multi-selector and has two and 10-second options. 

Playback Mode (7.25)
The Playback mode can be accessed using the mode dial or the button on the back of the camera. I prefer the button on the back because it’s easier to flip between Recording and Playback mode.

Pictures can be viewed one by one or in screens of four, nine, 16, or 25 pictures. There is also a calendar view available from the initial screen that pops up when the menu button is pushed. Pictures can be magnified up to 10x in Playback mode. This mode’s menu has a plethora of functions: Slide Show, Edit, Print Order, Setup, Silent Mode, Erase, Calendar, Perfect Fix, and the standard Playback menu.

The Standard menu isn’t very exciting. It consists of three options: Protect, Resize, and Voice Memo. The slide shows are interesting, although there aren’t zillions of options for customizing displays. Background music can be turned on and off. You will want this turned off. The music consists of about 10 seconds of elevator music that plays and replays and replays - it’s very annoying. Transitions can be chosen, too: normal, scroll, fader, slide, zoom up, zoom down, checkerboard, blinds, swivel, and random.

There are tons of editing options:

RAW Data Edit: This allows users to fully adjust the image quality, white balance, white balance compensation, sharpness, contrast, and saturation. This didn’t work on the preproduction camera but works flawlessly on the production camera. All of the menu options come with live previews of the image and give users a lot of flexibility. This feature probably won’t replace Photoshop for most hobbyists, but is a nice touch nonetheless.

Resize: Users can choose from e-mail-friendly 640 x 480 and 320 x 240-pixel choices.

Crop: The zoom ring can be used to crop images to any form.

Color Edit: The camera displays four preview images of the selected image in four different Color modes; black and white, sepia, vivid, and muted colors. Users scroll and pick one. The result is saved as a separate file. Many cameras have Color modes, but this preview setup is really nice.

Frame: There are 13 frames to choose from. None of them look super professional, but could be fun for printing pictures to put in a high school locker.

Label: Ten phrases are available that are common on greeting cards. 'Congratulations' and 'Happy Birthday' are among the options.

Calendar: Not to be confused with the calendar display option. This allows users to choose from eight layouts so pictures can be printed on a calendar page. No need to buy that expensive photo calendar from the online retailer.

Layout: Scrapbookers rejoice. This option aligns pictures on pages with six different layouts.

Expression Edit: The specs indicate that this feature can save the largest face in an image as a separate file (if detected by the face detection system in the first place), but this didn’t seem to work, even on the production model. A "face detect error" message appeared every time, even when the face was recognized by the face detection system. After 40+ portrait shots, we’ve just about given up on this feature.

Face Focus: This keeps the center of the image in focus and blurs everything around it. Because I used a picture of a tightly cropped face from the previous editing option, the nose was perfectly focused, with all other features blurred. Not flattering in that case.

Perfect Fix: Allows users to fix red eyes, lighting, or both. I didn’t have any red-eye pictures to test, so I tested only the lighting portion of this feature. It seems to work very well. It fixes images that looked a little washed out and adds contrast where needed. It also shows before and after images side by side for a moment – perhaps just to show how awesome the feature is.

Video Editing: Movies can be played back and edited. The preproduction model didn’t show this option, but the final product shows that videos can be split. The new file can be saved separately or overwrite the old one. The audio, if recorded, sounds great with the big speaker. Users can fast forward and rewind, and play back the movie in slow motion.

Overall, the Playback mode has a great medium on the high-resolution, wide-viewing-angle LCD screen, and has lots of cool editing options to enhance pictures and print cards and projects directly from the camera. 

Custom Image Presets (7.0)
The Olympus SP-560UZ has a healthy set of 25 Scene modes located conveniently in a 'SCN' position on the mode dial. Most of the custom image presets are seen on other Olympus digital cameras, but there are two new to the bunch. Here is the list:

Portrait, Landscape, Landscape + Portrait, Sport, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Indoor, Candle, Self Portrait, Available Light, Sunset, Fireworks, Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select 1, Shoot & Select 2, Smile Shot, Beach, Snow, Underwater Wide 1, Underwater Wide 2, Underwater Macro, and Quick Shutter.

The new modes are Smile Shot and Quick Shutter. Smile Shot crops images to a tiny 1600 x 1200 pixels and takes two pictures in a quick burst when the shutter release button is pushed. In our opinion, this isn’t worthy of a whole new Scene mode. The Quick Shutter mode is fairly self-explanatory: it’s made for photographing action.

Some of the Scene modes automatically shrink the image size. The Smile Shot mode shoots only 1600 x 1200 pixels. The Available Light and Candle modes shoot 2048 x 1536-pixel images. The Auction mode shoots 640 x 480-pixel images. If you shoot in the Auction mode and post your pictures to an online auction site, let’s just hope your customers don’t request larger images for closer inspection of that handmade Persian rug you’re trying to sell.

The Scene mode menu has a nice setup. It shows a small example picture along with a brief explanation of what the mode does. Overall, the Scene mode selection covers the basics and more.