Olympus SP-570 UZ Expert Reviews

The SP-570 is the best-looking long zoom digital camera Olympus has produced, finally available in a black body that's compact, yet easily handled. The Olympus SP-570 UZ's 2.7-inch LCD screen is complemented by a decent electronic viewfinder, and the ...

The Olympus SP-570 UZ is an extremely promising superzoom, with the widest optical zoom range of any compact camera at 20x, plus built-in image stabilisation, a 1cm macro mode, full manual controls and the ability to shoot at an incredible ISO 6,400 - ...

Build quality ; specifications ; controls

Patchy image quality ; sluggish response time

You can't argue with what the Olympus SP-570 UZ can do, only how well it does it. While it looks and feels a cut above the rest, its failings are typical of superzoom compacts in general, including sluggish responses, poor high ISO performance and ...

How does this super zoom perform?

Great range of options, simple to use for novices, options for advanced users, good build quality

Price, electronic view finder not fantastic, needs xD-Picture Card (not supplied), battery life, image quality can suffer

Wide range of options and solid build quality are offset by image problems through the compromises needed to pack this much lens into this small a body

ePHOTOzine member Pete Johnson has submitted a review of the Olympus SP-570 UZ.

Lightweight body that does not feel flimsy

olympus sp-570 ultra zoom review: The 10-megapixel SP-570UZ boasts a 20x optical zoom lens, but poor performance diminishes its potential as an otherwise solid superzoom.

Lots of helpful and useful features

Slow, Big, Manual zoom ring on lens not responsive enough, Can't zoom in movie capture

Poor performance diminishes the Olympus SP-570 UZ's potential as an otherwise solid megazoom.

This 'superzoom' compact looks more like a digital SLR camera

A huge competition-battering zoom lens is the SP-570UZ's reason for being, so it's disappointing that it's sluggish to respond - and for sharp images it's impossible to shoot handheld at maximum zoom. That aside, the camera is sturdy, feature-packed ...

How does the Olympus SP-570 UZ compare in a now-crowded marketplace?

Zoom ring, Raw support, long lens

Exposures too light, fringing, EVF not as good as others

The SP-570's decent EVF and good zoom ring help it to stand out from the others; however it lacks the finesse of the Nikon P80, particularly in terms of image quality. Overall it's a case of mixed blessings from Olympus.

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The Olympus SP-570UZ may just be the camera for you if you are not ready to jump on the DSLR bandwagon just yet.

Great long zoom range ; ability to capture images in RAW, lightweight and portable

Slow startup time ; slow focusing speed ; video mode does not allow the use of optical zoom without sacrificing audio

All in all, however, the Olympus SP-570UZ is a decent bridge camera that should cater to both beginners and advanced amateurs.

OLYMPUS shows off the largest lens on a compact camera, offering a massive 20x zoom.

20x zoom, dual image stabilisation, 13.5fps burst mode

Some over-sharpening, full-resolution burst mode slow, electronic zoom fiddly for precise framing

Olympus' SP-570UZ continues the trend of its past ultra-zooms, offering an enticing package for users looking for a larger lens. It isn't perfect - at times it can be sluggish and the pictures have some minor issues - but on the whole it does a solid ...