Olympus SP-570UZ Digital Camera Review

by Steve Morgenstern

If you feel your inner paparazzo yearning to come out and play, consider the Olympus SP-570UZ with its whopping 20x zoom lens – the equivalent of a 28mm-520mm zoom in 35mm photography. We had lots of fun shooting with this camera, firing off photos of architectural details, birds and beasts acting natural and people acting silly, all of them far from the spot we were standing. And while the telephoto lens is the headline feature, the 28mm wide angle means you don't sacrifice the ability to shoot panoramas or groups of friends in cramped indoor spaces. Image quality isn't stellar, but it's not bad either, and manual controls and customization options abound. Our detailed rundown on the pros and cons of this 10-megapixel, $450 ultra-zoom follows.

Read more >>

Olympus E-30

The E-30 is for photographers looking turn ordinary moments into extraordinary masterpieces. Autofocus Live View with Multiple Exposure shooting lets you create artistic effects in-camera. Six Art Filters instantly give your images a variety of creative looks. Features like Face Detection, Shadow Adjustment Technology and In-body Image Stabilization ensure clear, crisp images in any shooting situation. It all adds up to a DSLR for photographers who want to express themselves more artistically.

Read more >>

Olympus Stylus 1040 Crystal

London, October 2008 – Bring more glamour into your life with the Olympus µ [mju:] 1040 Crystal. Based on the recently-introduced µ [mju:] 1040, this special limited edition model includes distinctive CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements that can easily be put on the camera’s sliding lens barrier. The ultra-slim µ [mju:] 1040 Crystal represents a perfect fusion of cutting-edge technology and sophisticated design – and will turn heads wherever it is taken.

This limited edition camera is available now for an approximate price of £175.

With the µ [mju:] 1040 Crystal, Olympus sets a new benchmark for elegance among digital cameras. A glittering arrangement of 98 CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements is included to adorn the protective sliding lens barrier. The camera’s Midnight Black colour provides a dramatic backdrop that makes the dazzling adhesive elements even more eye-catching.

Read more >>

Olympus E-520

Review by Jeff Keller

If you purchase the E-520 lens kit, then you'll get Olympus' fairly new 14 - 42 mm lens. On the E-520 (and all other FourThirds cameras), that's equivalent to 28 - 84 mm. This is a pretty nice lens, as kit lenses go, with good sharpness and decent build quality. There are plenty of other FourThirds lenses available, ranging from macro to super telephoto.

Digital SLRs never come with memory cards, so if you don't have an xD or CompactFlash card already, you'll have to buy one. The E-520 has two slots: one for xD and the other for CompactFlash. The CF slot supports Type I and II cards, though I don't believe that it takes advantage of super fast UDMA-enabled cards. I'd suggest starting with a 2GB, high speed CompactFlash card.

Read more >>

Olympus, Nikon & Canon Firmware Updates

Olympus, Nikon and Canon have announced firmware updates. Canon’s firmware update for the Canon WFT-E3/E3A wireless transmitter will now make it compatible on the 50D. The firmware update for Nikon D80 and D200 corrects the problem of light flashing empty, inspite of it being fully charged, commonly known as the ‘Dead Battery Syndrome’. Meanwhile, firmware v1.1 for the Olympus E-520 and E-420 improves the brightness level of AF target points in the Viewfinder.

Read more >>

Olympus SP-570 UZ

The Olympus SP-570 is a 10 megapixel digital camera with a 20x optical zoom lens. This is the longest lens currently available on a consumer digital camera.

Why Buy the Olympus SP-570?

I guess I'm stating the obvious when I say the main attraction of the SP-570 is the long zoom lens. This length of zoom usually comes in handy for wildlife and sporting subjects. In addition to the length of the lens the camera also has manual exposure controls. For anyone who is use to handing an SLR camera you may be interested to hear that the lens is zoomed in and out by twisting the lens barrel rather than the more typical method of pushing buttons on the back of the camera.

As you would expect with a lens this size, the SP-570 offers image stabilisation. The lens has a focal length equivalent to 26 - 520mm in 35mm format. This makes the lens wide angle and makes it ideal for shooting wide scenes, such as landscapes. The camera also comes with a set of manual exposure controls. Therefore this camera is a good choice for someone who sees photography as a hobby.

Read more >>

Olympus SP-565 Ultra Zoom

Olympus has given the SP-570 UZ – the world’s most powerful ultra zoom digital camera – an extreme makeover by creating the new SP-565 Ultra Zoom, a smaller and lighter version with the same amazing precision-crafted 20x wide-angle telephoto zoom lens (26-520mm equivalent), but the ease-of-use of a point-and-shoot camera. Photographers searching for an even more portable and approachable ultra zoom to take anywhere will rejoice in the camera’s new form factor, and with 10 million pixels and Dual Image Stabilization delivering superior, virtually blur-free images, the SP-565 UZ is proof that good things do come in small packages.

The camera’s enhanced Face Detection can now track up to 16 faces within the frame and optimize exposure even when subjects are moving, ensuring that family reunion group portraits will come out well-focused. In addition, the SP-565 UZ ensures sharp, brilliant images with a host of other features:

Read more >>

Olympus Stylus 1040 / 1050SW

Olympus today debuts the StylusÒ 1040, the thinnest Stylus camera of all time, and wins serious style points with a bold, stylish look. When wearing a designer outfit, getting behind the wheel of a sleek sports car, or stepping onto the red carpet, the Stylus 1040 is available in black and silver to match your moments. With a camera this portable and attractive, you will not just capture the scene, but will also be a part of it.

“The Stylus 1040 is perfect for style-conscience consumers and captures amazing images,” said Tomoko Matsunaga, product manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc. “The new ultra-slim design features a new streamlined body with a lens-protecting faceplate that instantly turns on the camera when it slides to reveal the lens and capture the moment.”

Read more >>

Olympus E-3

Review by Shawn Barnett

Olympus has finally announced their long-awaited flagship DSLR camera, the E-3. Billed as a pure pro camera, the Olympus E-3 is really more comparable to the cameras by Olympus's competitors that we've been categorizing as semi-pro, such as the Pentax K10D, Canon 40D, and Nikon D200. Whatever you call it though, there's no question that the new E-3 represents a sizable leap forward in technology and sophistication for the Olympus SLR line.

With the E-3, Olympus introduces their first new autofocus sensor in years: an 11-point array, each point consisting of twin cross-type AF sensors. They're claiming this is the fastest AF system on the market. Combined with greater 1.15x magnification in the E-3's viewfinder, framing and focusing with this Four-Thirds camera is a lot easier than past Olympus models.

A new shutter mechanism in the Olympus E-3 delivers 1/8,000 second speed, and 1/250 flash sync, and an expected lifetime of 150,000 cycles. Mirror blackout time is also said to be low, but there are no official numbers yet. Three dedicated processors handle three separate functions: one for image stabilization, one for autofocus, and the TruePic III for image processing. A UDMA-compatible CompactFlash slot promises fast write times, and the additional xD-Picture Card slot adds extra storage.

Read more >>

Olympus E-3

Review by Simon Joinson

Four years is a very long time in the digital camera market, and four years in the digital SLR market is virtually a lifetime. In the four-odd years between the launch of the Olympus E-1 - the camera that heralded the first all-new SLR system for over a decade - and its successor the E-3, the DSLR landscape has changed beyond recognition, with prices dropping and capabilities soaring. The world moved on whilst the Olympus professional system stood still, looking more and more irrelevant and less and less like a serious contender to the long-standing Canon/Nikon duopoly in the pro market.

Of course the Olympus range itself wasn't standing still, and after a few false starts (mainly caused by the almost suicidal tendency for Olympus industrial designers to produce cameras that didn't look like cameras) and some flashes of inspired innovation (bringing live view, kicking and screaming, to the SLR market, for example) the E-series started to be taken a lot more seriously.

Read more >>