Olympus SP-570 UZ

Latest Camera Reviews
DSLR Point & Shoot Samsung NX10 Panasonic DMC-TS2 Olympus E-P1 Casio EX-G1 Nikon D300S Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 Pentax K-X Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX5 Nikon D3000 Samsung TL500

Recently Viewed Products
Canon PowerShot SD850 IS $400

Top Point & Shoot Cameras
Max Price: $2100 $0 $525 $1050 $1575 $2100 Filters All Canon Casio Fuji Kodak Nikon Olympus Panasonic Pentax Samsung Sony All Compact High-End Pocket Ultra-Zoom 1. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX1 Ultra-Zoom $420 2. Canon SX1 IS Ultra-Zoom $520 3. Panasonic DMC-ZS3 Compact $280 4. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 Ultra-Zoom $400 5. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX7 Compact $350

SP-570 UZ Prices

External Reviews
InfoSync Olympus SP-570UZ Imaging Resource Olympus SP-570 UZ Register Hardware Olympus SP-570 UZ Trusted Reviews Olympus SP-570 UZ Steve's Digicams Olympus SP-570 UZ More

The Olympus SP-570UZ has an electronic viewfinder that is properly sized for the camera’s measurements and is surrounded by a hard plastic eyecup. This isn’t very comfortable to rest your eye upon. There is a diopter adjustment dial to the left of the viewfinder that allows you to customize the viewfinder to your eyeglass prescription. There are 15 stops in its range.

 

Resolution specs aren’t available, but they didn't appear to be very good in the pre-production unit we looked at. The image looks blocky. The view from the finder can be switched to the LCD and vice versa with the button to the lower right of the finder. The viewfinder provides good shade and would be good for shooting in the outdoors and other harsh lighting, but otherwise the LCD provides better resolution on a bigger screen.

 

The older SP-560 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen. The new SP-570UZ upgrades to a slightly larger 2.7-inch LCD. The HyperCrystal LCD has 230,000 pixels, making for a better view than the blocky viewfinder. The LCD can be seen from above, below, and to the sides at fairly wide angles. When viewing at extreme angles, though, the screen’s colors look oversaturated and the contrast looks overbearing. Some manufacturers’ screens look washed out at extreme angles, but this one seems to go the other way.

 

The SP-570’s LCD screen isn’t very bright with its standard setting, but has a five-step adjustment in its Setup menu that boosts the light. One nice perk about the LCD is that it seems to repel fingerprints. We looked at this camera at a press event the day before the Photo Marketing Association trade show opened. There were dozens of people handling the camera. Most cameras look nasty and germy with all the smudges and grease on the LCD, but the SP-570 retained its pristine screen. It did catch a little glare, as do most, but generally comes out on top.

 

The Olympus SP-570UZ has a pop-up flash that appears just above the lens. It doesn’t pop up automatically; there is a button on its left side that must be pushed to open it. This may baffle some beginners in the Auto mode, but the camera does suggest opening the flash at times with large red text on the live view.

 

The flash options are many: Flash on, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill-in, Fill-in and Red-eye reduction, Slow Sync 1, Slow Sync with Red-Eye Reduction, Slow Sync 2, and Off. They can be accessed with the button to the right in the multi-selector.

 

According to the manufacturer, the flash lights from 0.98 to 21 feet at ISO 400. This spec is generous. Most manufacturers publish flash coverage specs at low or automatic ISO speeds, and Olympus chose to publish its specs at a more sensitive ISO 400. The aforementioned specs are valid when the lens is zoomed wide; in telephoto, the flash is effective from 3.9 to 13.1 feet. The flash generally does not look flattering. It seems too harsh for subjects within six feet. There is a flash exposure compensation option that helps, though. It has a full +/- 2 range in steps of a third and is found in the Recording menu.

 

Like its predecessors, the Olympus SP-570UZ can sync with wireless flash systems. It has a slave flash option in its menu, as well as a remote flash option. The Olympus SP-570UZ can accept third-party flashes as well as its FL50R and FL36R remote flashes. The hot shoe sits directly behind the built-in unit.

 

Overall, the built-in flash’s coverage is questionable, but it has an array of nice options and even a hot shoe that can accept just about any flash.

Currently, the Olympus SP-570UZ is the king of the hill with its 20x optical zoom lens and dual image stabilization system. This is longer than the SP-560’s 18x lens. The new lens is also wider with its 26-520mm equivalent (4.6-92mm), only one millimeter wider than the 27-486mm range on the older model. This makes it incredibly versatile. Sally Smith Clemens, Olympus digital camera product manager, claims this lens is like carrying around three lenses in one. We can validate that statement, to a certain extent. The SP-570 is built to attract photographers who want the control of an SLR without carrying around a hefty camera and a big bag of lenses. Certainly, this lens has a great range that allows you to photograph everything from landscapes to products to portraits to sports.

 

The Olympus ED lens is made of 14 lenses in 11 groups and includes four aspherical lenses and two ED lenses. Its maximum aperture is a nice and bright f/2.8 when zoomed out and f/4.5 when zoomed in.

 

Previous SP-series digital cameras use a zoom control that surrounds the shutter release button. The Olympus SP-570UZ uses a manual zoom ring around the lens that makes it feel very much like a DSLR. This is a tactic the Casio Exilim EX-F1 ultra-zoom digital camera uses on its 12x lens.

 

The Olympus SP-570’s zoom ring is grooved and comfortable. It feels good to move, and requires users to have both hands on board to operate the lens and push the shutter release button. The toggle on previous cameras just didn’t do the giant lenses justice. But the new ring doesn’t move as smoothly as I’d hoped. Granted, it doesn’t make any noise or backfire, but it takes fast rotation to get it to move at all – and most of the time I would over-zoom my target. In other words, it doesn't register slow movement, so you really have to crank the zoom ring fast in order to get it to go anywhere. This doesn’t make for very subtle zoom changes. The Casio F1’s similar zoom ring is much more sensitive. Keep in mind, though, that I looked at a pre-production Olympus SP-570, so its zoom could potentially be much smoother by the time it gets to store shelves.

 

It has 5x digital zoom, and Olympus pairs this with the 20x optical zoom to advertise a ridiculous 100x zoom – but beware, digital zoom degrades image quality to the point that subjects are barely recognizable.