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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 6
Optical Zoom: 10x
Digital Zoom: 5x
LCD screen: 2.5inch
Storage: xD, 10mb int
Size: 105.5(w) x 74(h) x 71(d)
Weight: 285g
We clicked with
10x Zoom (38-380mm in 35mm equivalent)
21 different scene modes
Shots in the dark
10 mb internal memory
Feels light and plastic
Links
More Olympus information
www.olympus.co.uk
Price Comparison:
Olympus SP-500 Ultra Zoom
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Being a big Olympus fan I was quite excited to get my hands on the new SP-500 Ultra Zoom. The 10x Zoom camera, offering full manual control and RAW format images, was right up my street. Although seeming a little light and plastic, the camera on the whole preformed well. Carrying 27 different scene settings, you should be able to create images in any environment, from the sports field to the activity holiday to the nice natural lit portraits of the kids. 21 of these settings are available simply on the scene program mode.
With a large 2.5 LCD the images you take are quickly reviewed, allowing you to re-shoot if necessary.
The camera seems to be targeted towards the advanced amateur, but is good for the newcomer wanting to learn and expand their talents too. Newer photographers will find it easy to progress using everything from preset creative modes to fully automatic and fully manual modes.
There is plenty to play with even for an old pro like me. A big advantage is that this camera allows you to experiment with photography in all its glory, from getting used to framing a shot all the way to compensation, exposure bracketing and manual settings. Anyone buying it from amateur snapper to advanced amateur will appreciate the many options available.
The camera only has a 10 mb internal memory so make sure that you have some extra xD- memory cards. With a 6.0 mp sensor at full quality you'll be using these up quite quickly.
Switch off
We had most fun switching all the gizmos off and constructing images manually. The controls aren't too fiddly, and it's particularly pleasing to use one of the creative modes to find out how the camera performs and then set up the shot without mode assistance for maximum flexibility. With ISO settings from 80 to 400, this camera covers the majority of the scenarios that you will come across, although there are other options in its class which head up as far as 1600. With the shutter speed adjustable from 15 seconds to 1000th of a second you can use this for sports and night photography, with only really dark nights defeating it completely.
Quality street
Olympus have always in my mind produced some of the best colour interpretation and the SP-500 is no exception. Colours are clean, fresh and vibrant before any post-processing. The 6.4mp sensor with 6.0mp effective coverage works extremely well.
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Ease of use 
Functions
Value for Money 
Overall 
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In summary, the SP500-UZ is one of those that allows users to dig further into creative photography with plenty of features and a whopping 35 mm equivalent 380mm lens. Easy to use, even in the advanced modes, the overall build and output is excellent; and to find cameras with a better feature set, you'll have to spend a good £250 more to get one. |
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