Color (5.61)
All cameras reproduce colors differently, such as sky blues, forest greens, or skin tones. Some cameras “boost” colors by oversaturating them, making the colors look brilliant but unnatural, while other cameras undersaturate colors, making them look muted and dull. We test color accuracy by photographing a GretagMacbeth ColorChecker test chart under bright, even studio lights, and comparing the colors the camera reproduces with the known colors of the chart. The ColorChecker contains 24 color tiles that represent colors from all over the color spectrum. The image below shows how the 560UZ’s colors measure up to the real colors of the test chart. The outside squares show the colors the 560UZ reproduces, the inside squares show the actual colors of the chart corrected for exposure, and the inner rectangles show the actual chart colors under a perfectly even exposure. The 560UZ is most accurate when slightly underexposed, which is why the inner rectangles look brighter than the squares.
The most obvious issue with the 560UZ’s color reproduction is that most of the colors look quite dull. Look especially at the reds, yellows, and greens compared to the actual chart colors, and notice how washed-out they appear. Other colors, such as the blues and purples, look different from their ideal counterparts. This information is shown in another way in the graph below. The ideal chart colors are shown as squares on the color spectrum, and the 560UZ colors are shown as circles. The lines connecting the squares and circles show the “drift,” or color error, for each color tile.
The graph reaffirms the blatant undersaturation we saw in the image above. Yellows, reds, and greens are extremely undersaturated, while blues and purples are shifted toward red. These color shifts will make landscapes appear dull and people appear pasty. There is a saturation control option in the camera’s menus, and you may have to use it to breathe some color back into your photos. Overall, the 560UZ scores poorly in color accuracy, surprisingly worse than its predecessor, the 550UZ.
Resolution (5.61)
The Olympus SP-560UZ features 8 megapixels, up from the earlier 7.1-megapixel SP-550UZ. To see how this improves resolution, we photograph an industry standard resolution test chart at varied focal lengths and exposure settings. We run these photos through Imatest, which measures resolution in terms of line widths per picture height (lw/ph), the number of equally spaced, alternating black and white lines that can fit across the picture frame.
Click on the chart above to view the full resolution file
The 560UZ shows its best resolution at ISO 50, f/5.6, and a focal length of 19mm. The camera resolves 1518 lw/ph horizontally with 5.5 percent oversharpening, and 1529 lw/ph vertically with 3.6 percent oversharpening. These numbers are rather disappointing, though the sharpening levels are low enough to prevent much image artifacting. The images stay sharp across the entire frame, but are subject to barrel distortion, which warps images. You can see this barrel distortion by looking at the black line on the bottom of the resolution chart; the line should look straight, but instead it’s bowed. Overall, the 560UZ scores worse in resolution than the fewer-megapixel 550UZ. Don’t get tricked into thinking more megapixels mean better image quality.
Noise – Manual ISO (4.40)
Image noise is an unavoidable nuisance in digital cameras that shows up as grainy patches spread uniformly over photos. Noise becomes more pronounced in dark areas of photos, and whenever the ISO speed is boosted. We measure noise by photographing our test chart under bright, even studio lighting at each ISO speed setting a camera has. We run the photos through Imatest, which measures noise in terms of the percent of image detail it drowns out.
The graph above shows how the 560UZ handles noise throughout its ISO speed range. The camera keeps noise very low at ISO 50 and 100, but then rises to visible levels at ISO 200 and 400. Oddly, noise levels drop at ISO 800, indicating automatic noise reduction. Noise is very high at ISO 1600 and 3200, and the images take on a very ugly and distracting blue cast, which you can clearly see in the still life images further down the page. This disturbing effect is removed by turning Noise Reduction on in the 560UZ’s Camera menu. The blue noise is so ugly it makes you wonder why Olympus didn’t just make this Noise Reduction the default, since the camera is already applying some automatic noise reduction. Overall, the camera scores very poorly in manual noise.
Auto Noise (2.24)
We also photograph the test chart under the same bright, even studio lights as above, but with the camera set to Auto ISO. The 560UZ fires at ISO 125, which is a very reasonable ISO speed for this camera. At ISO 125, the images have very little noise.
White Balance (7.36)
Every light source has a different color cast to it, from bright sunlight to indoor fluorescent light. Cameras must be able to correctly adjust for these different color casts, which is called white balancing. We test white balance accuracy by photographing the ColorChecker test chart under four different types of light: flash, fluorescent, outdoor shade, and tungsten. We test both the Auto white balance setting and the appropriate white balance presets.
Auto (7.33)
The Auto white balance is very accurate using its flash, decent under fluorescent light and outdoor shade, and poor under tungsten. Almost all cameras have poor Auto white balance under tungsten light, however, and these results show that leaving the camera on Auto should be fine for most shooting situations.
Preset (7.38)
Using the white balance presets, the 560UZ is very accurate under white fluorescent light (using the “Fluorescent 3” setting), mediocre under tungsten lights, and poor under outdoor cloudy light. Use the presets when you’re shooting indoors and don’t like the color cast of your photos; otherwise sticking to Auto should be fine.
Still Life Sequences
Click to view high-resolution images.
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Still Life Scene
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ISO 50
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ISO 50
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ISO 100
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ISO 100
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ISO 200
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ISO 200
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ISO 400
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ISO 400
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ISO 800
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ISO 800
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ISO 1600
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ISO 1600
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ISO 3200
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ISO 3200
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Low Light (7.45)
We showed you how the 560UZ reproduces color and handles noise in bright light, but how does it perform in less-than-ideal shooting conditions? We test image quality in low light by photographing the ColorChecker test chart at light levels of 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux. Sixty lux is about as bright as a room lit softly by two table lamps, 30 lux approximates a room lit by a single 40-watt bulb, and 15 and 5 lux are very low light that test the limits of the sensor. All shots are taken at ISO 1600.
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Low Light Tests
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60 Lux
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30 Lux
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15 Lux
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5 Lux
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Color accuracy is very poor in low light and even more undersaturated than we saw in bright light. Saturation levels get as low as 65 percent at 5 lux, even though the camera can expose properly. Noise levels are very high at such high ISO speeds, and have that ugly blue cast we described in the Manual Noise section. The 560UZ can expose properly in low light, but the photos don’t look very good.
We also test how well cameras perform in long exposures. The 560UZ can take exposures as long as 15 seconds, and all shots were taken at ISO 400. In these long exposures, color accuracy suffers, though noise levels stay fairly low. However, the camera shows an imaging issue we haven’t seen in a camera for quite some time. Long exposure photos show an emanating blue glow coming from the upper and lower right corners of the photos that increase in size as exposure length is increased. This shows an obvious problem in the camera, and will make it very hard to capture nice photos with shutter speeds longer than 1 second.
Dynamic Range (6.25)
Dynamic range is an important image quality factor that describes how well a camera can discern detail in both bright and dark areas of the same image. Good dynamic range is especially important for scenes with high contrast, such as wedding photos or landscapes in bright sunlight. We test dynamic range by photographing a backlit Stouffer step chart, which consists of a long row of rectangles, each a slightly darker shade of gray varying from brightest white to darkest black. The more rectangles a camera can distinguish, the better its dynamic range.
The 560UZ shows excellent dynamic range at ISO 50 and 100, but decreases at higher ISO speeds. Keep this camera at low ISO speeds whenever possible to utilize the camera’s full potential. This is one of the few image quality areas where the 560UZ surpasses its predecessor, the 550UZ.
Speed/Timing – All speed tests are conducted using an Olympus 256MB xD-Picture Card, with the camera set to SHQ, unless otherwise noted.
Startup-to-Shot (7.0)
The 560UZ takes 3.0 seconds to turn on and fire a shot.
Shot-to-Shot (8.9)
The 560UZ has a slew of Continuous Shooting modes, including the normal Burst mode, HI 1, HI 2, PRE HI 2, and AF. In normal Burst mode, the camera takes 12 shots, each 1.1 seconds after the next. In HI 1 mode, the camera takes approximately 40 SQ1 quality (lower than maximum resolution) shots every 0.2 seconds. In HI 2 mode, it takes 40 SQ2 (even lower resolution) shots every 0.8 seconds. The PRE HI 2 mode is the same as SQ2, except that the first 10 images are recorded before the shutter is even pressed. AF mode autofocus between shots, allowing the camera to take 12 shots 1.8 seconds apart.
Shutter-Shot (9.0)
The camera has no measurable lag when the shutter is held halfway down and prefocused, but a 0.5second lag if not prefocused.
Processing (7.4)
It takes 2.6 seconds for the 560UZ to process one 3 MB SHQ photo taken at ISO 64.
Video Performance (4.46)
Bright Indoor Light – 3000 lux
We record video footage of our video charts under bright studio lights set to 3000 lux to test Movie mode image quality. Color accuracy is excellent under such bright light, even slightly better than in still photographs. Noise stays very low, as well.
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Low Light – 30 lux
Color accuracy isn’t nearly as good with the lights dimmed to 30 lux, but noise levels stay quite low, anyway.
Video Resolution
We also record footage of our resolution chart to see what video compression does to resolution performance. The camera resolves 295 lw/ph horizontally with 5.4 percent undersharpening, and 476 lw/ph vertically with 4 percent undersharpening. These values are decent, and don’t introduce extreme image artifacts.
Motion
We take cameras out of the lab to get a look at how they render the motion of moving cars and pedestrians. The 560UZ’s video has nice color and contrast, and avoids the ugly highlight bleeding that has plagued other Olympus Movie modes. However, there is still some exposure “flashing” evident, which happens when the camera tries to adjust metering; it changes the light level very abruptly and awkwardly. The focus also looks a bit soft, and motion has some jerkiness to it when subjects move out of the frame. Overall, the 560UZ has the best video we’ve seen from an Olympus yet, though it still isn’t at the level of other top ultra-zoom cameras, such as the Canon Powershot S5 IS or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18.
