Olympus SP-500 Ultra Zoom Reviews

Expert review by: Gagan Gupta (tech2.in.com)

Olympus SP-510 UZ

We test-run Olympus' new budget superzoom.

Looking at its great street price of Rs. 19,000 I think the SP-150 UZ makes a pretty good option as a budget superzoom. Sure it has some negatives, but none that can't be overcome with a little manual setting. If you're going for a superzoom, you...

Dec, 2006

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Expert review by: Steve's Digicam Online (steves-digicams.com)

Olympus SP-510 UltraZoom

The Olympus SP-510 Ultra Zoom offers the highest image resolution of any 10x digital camera on the market, an Olympus ED Zoom Lens, a large 2.5-inch LCD and extra-long battery life (up to 630 shots from standard alkaline batteries). Designed to satisfy...

Feb, 2007

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Expert review by: Terry Sullivan (pcmag.com)

Olympus SP-510 UZ

Great guide modes help you select appropriate settings and modes. Very good macro mode. Can shoot in RAW. Conveniently uses AA batteries.

Mediocre performance. Poor burst mode. Special xD cards required for highest video performance. A bit of shutter lag is noticeable.

The latest superzoom from Olympus provides welcome guidance in the field but needs buttressing in terms of quality and performance.

Jan, 2007

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Expert review by: (steves-digicams.com)

Olympus SP-500 UZ

The SP-500 UZ makes it easy to capture great images in a variety of lighting situations with 21 pre-programmed scene modes, such as Night Scene, Indoor Portrait or Cuisine Mode. The Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes gives users versatility...

Olympus' TruePic TURBO™ Image Processor enhances image quality and delivers faster overall processing speeds for rapid startup, shutter release and playback. TruePic TURBO enables the SP-500 UZ to capture information from all 6.0 million pixels with...

Mar, 2006

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Expert review by: Simon Joinson (dpreview.com)

Olympus SP-500 UZ

Five and a half years ago, long before Panasonic launched the FZ series, before Canon, Kodak, Minolta - or anyone else for that matter - had joined the 'big zoom' party there was the Olympus C-2100UZ. With its image-stabilized 10x zoom, electronic...

Decent results with good detail and natural color ; Low noise at low ISO settings, still fairly low at ISO 400 ; Comprehensive photographic controls ; Rugged, lightweight construction and excellent handling ; Lots of scene/subject modes ; Huge range of...

JPEG images look soft compared to much of the competition ; Mild exposure problems in high contrast / bright scenes ; Writing to xD picture card slow (much better with newer high speed cards) ; Raw mode slow (much better with newer high speed cards) ;...

Taken on its own merits the SP-500UZ is a more than capable camera with a huge feature set, great handling and perfectly good results - at a very competitive price point. But the 'super zoom' sector is one of the most fiercely competitive markets in...

Feb, 2006

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Expert review by: Richard Baguley (pcworld.com)

Olympus SP-500 Ultra Zoom

Artwork: Rick Rizner, Chris Manners

High image quality ; Powerful zoom

No image stabilization

The low-priced SP-500 delivers high image quality, long battery life, and a powerful zoom. But it lacks image stabilization.

Jan, 2006

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Olympus SP-500

Olympus is struggling mightily to keep with the digicam leaders (Kodak, Canon and Sony). Sometimes they win with models like Stylus 800 and E-500 D-SLR while in other instances they fail miserably with IR-500 and M:Robe. Yet you can't blame them for...

Compact 6MP 10x optical zoom digicam

Uneven focusing ; OK picture quality

The 10x Olympus SP-500UZ is in the thick of a tough fight with Canon, Kodak, Konica-Minolta and Sony.

Dec, 2005

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Expert review by: Mark Lent (popphoto.com)

Camera Review: Olympus SP-510UZ

The Olympus SP-510UZ is a 7.1 Megapixel EVF (Electronic ViewFinder) camera that has some big-time features typically found in much more expensive DSLR's, but with a street price of only $342. The real surprises for an EVF at this price is that it...

Dec, 2008

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Expert review by: Jeff Keller (dcresource.com)

Olympus SP-500UZ

While many of Olympus' competitors have added image stabilization to their ultra zooms, Olympus has not had this feature on their cameras since the legendary C-2100UZ from the year 2000. What you will find on the SP-500UZ is a 10X optical zoom lens, 6...

Good photo quality ; Full manual controls ; Large 2.5" LCD display (but see issues below) ; Support for RAW image format; images can be edited right on the camera ; Customizable buttons and menus; favorite settings can be saved to spot on the mode dial...

Sluggish performance when viewing photos in playback mode, or shooting in RAW format ; No image stabilization ; LCD resolution isn't great, neither is low light visibility ; Unimpressive continuous shooting and movie modes ; No diopter correction for...

The SP-500UZ is an average camera in a sea of really good ones. While I'd say that it's "okay to buy" the SP-500, there are many other cameras in this category that offer better performance, photo quality, and features (including image stabilization).

Apr, 2008

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Expert review by: Consumer Guide (howstuffworks.com)

Olympus SP-500 UZ (UltraZoom) digital camera Review and Prices

Olympus has given photographers a hybrid between ultra-thin digital cameras and large 35mm-type models with its SP-500 UltraZoom. At 2.8 inches in thickness, the SP-500 UZ isn't going to fit in a pocket like an ultra-thin digital camera, but it is...

10X zoom lens, good photo quality, good mix of beginner and intermediate features, good response times

EVF won't appeal to everyone, LCD could be sharper, camera shake can be a problem

Sep, 2007