Upgrading from an existing superzoom, the Sony H2 6MP, 12x optical zoom which was given a highly recommended rating at www.dpreview.com, I was rightly looking for quality and performance in my next camera. I knew I wanted at least 10 megapixels as I wanted to blow up large prints. The 12x zoom on my Sony has been a real boon and has enabled me to take so many shots that would have otherwise been impossible. So I was after at least the same again.
Zoom range is something of a taboo in the digital photography world at the moment. to fit these large zooms in compact cameras like the Olympus SP-570 UZ, a certain amount of quality is lost in the image. But with the 12x Zoom on my Sony, this was hardly noticable and more than compensated with by the increased versatility.
However, the above is not true of the OlympusSP-570 UZ. In short I found the pictures to be soft and lacking depth. Even side by side with my Sony H2 which is a two year old camera, both at auto settings, the H2 won hands down.
It suffered even worse in low light conditions where it struggled to focus and increasing the ISO speed meant significant noise appeared over ISO400.
The manual zoom ring, is both too sensative and not sensative enough with no linier movement, rather a random action that proved frustrating to use - more a gimmick that's trying to be like an SLR type lens.
The menu is also complicated and not very well set out, at least not compared to Sony and Canon digitals I've used in the past. There is a vast array of manual settings but the menu is so frustrating, you are exhausted by the time you've found what you're after.
Manybe you have to play around with the camera to get it to it's best but then if you have time to do this you should go for an SLR in the first place.
This said, the camera itself is solidly build and feels great in your hand. buttons are well placed and had the zoom ring been a bit more responsive, it too is in a great position and would have made an ideal addition to the 570. Macro mode is also fantastic, with the ability to focus literally millimetres away from the subject but again the results are poor in low light.
I wanted to like the 570 as the feature set and the feel in your hand suggest the true bridge camera between compact and SLR is finally here. But the 570 misses this mark by a long shot and is in no way worth the money. With SLRs not coming down in price, and the likes of the Olympus 410 costing less than the 570, it's even more difficult to justify choosing the Olympus 570 over a low end DSLR. If the Olympus was £75 cheaper it might be easier to recommend but there are plenty of bridge cameras out there that perform equally well.
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Jun 14th, 2008
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