Introduction

Olympus' brand new SZ-31MR is a moderately expensive travel-zoom that replaces the SZ-30MR in the company's lineup. This is a relatively minor update, offering slight changes to the control layout, the addition of a new touchscreen rear monitor, and a small boost to burst shooting speed. The 30MR's best features have been carried over, such as the giant 24x zoom lens, 16 megapixel sensor, and the heavily-advertised "Multi-Recording functionality."

The SZ-31MR is sometimes listed with the "iHS" suffix (though the badge is barely noticeable on the retail box) and this supposedly stands for "Intelligent High Speed" or "Intelligent High Sensitivity." Fair enough, the camera is fast for its size, and offers one additional ISO level over its predecessor. But we'll let our lab tests decide whether this "new technology" is more than just marketing.