As I opened the box the first thing that struck me was how small this camera is. Expecting something almost the size of an slr, I was pleasantly surprised. This fits comfortably in my hands and by no means needs the neck strap provided with it.

Why did I buy this?

Well, the zoom primarily. At 20x optical zoom, giving an equivalent of 26-520mm this was far cheaper than buying lenses to fit my dslr covering this zoom range. The zoom range itself is incredible. Although the sp590 uz boasts a 26x optical zoom, for all intensive purposes the 20x provided by the sp570 is more than enough for the ordinary shooter, or even a would be paparazzi. Performance at the end of the telephoto range (full zoom) wasn't great, but still perfectly usable. Image quality in general is very impressive for a non dslr camera, easily beating any of the older compacts I've used in the past and the pop-up flash makes a resoundingly reassuring 'click' when it's activated by the button situated on the top left hand side of the camera. There's also a hot-shoe provided on the camera for that expensive flash you've bought, with wireless flash support too.

The dial with all the letters on controls the main features of the camera, providing automatic, review, video, a useful help guide, scene mode and all of the manual controls you could possibly want on a point a shoot camera. The ability to save your own manual settings under the "my' option on the main dial is also a brilliant addition. For those of you who are new to photography, or looking to get into it, this would be a great purchase. Branch out into the available 'scene' modes and you'll easily create professional looking portraits with blurred out backgrounds, or beautiful longer exposures with the night or fireworks settings.

All of the buttons are laid out in a relatively straight forward way as you'd find with most cameras available now. The slightly quirky additions to this camera include the location of the on off switch, which is situated underneath the main dial and is operated similarly to the dial, with the only two options being, rather obviously, on or off. Another strange addition to this camera can be found in the zoom ring. Situated on the camera lense body itself, the optical zoom is operated by twisting the ring to the left to zoom in, or to the right to zoom out.

I was impressed by the speed at which the camera focussed on objects, again beating that of any compact cameras I've used in the past. The camera struggles to take clear and crisp pictures of cloudy landscapes and some situations indoors on the automatic setting, but using the correct scene mode dramatically improves this. With the full manual controls available on this camera for those that are interested, you can ensure your shot comes out exactly as you want it to, every time.

At under £200 this camera is also one of the best value point and shoots available on the market, but it doesn't support HD video. This wasn't really a problem for me as I wanted a high end compact camera, not a camcorder, but may be for others who seek a modern all in one package.

The bad points.

Olympus have built one of the best compact cameras ever made as far as I'm concerned, but seem to have forgotten to provide a rechargeable battery. Whilst this may not be a major problem to a lot of people, I can happily take up to 200 shots a day when I'm out with the camera, so a good set of rechargeable AA (4) batteries is essential. I'm currently using 2100mAh batteries which give me about 350 shots per charge.

Furthermore, the diverse feature wheel with all of the settings is almost too sturdy. Whilst each click reminds you of how well built this unit is, it is far more difficult to scroll quickly half way around the wheel to reach a different setting than I have ever experienced on any other camera before. Whilst not a major issue for me, it is a small annoyance never the less.

The LCD screen, whilst being a large 2.7 inches, is uninspiring. Don't expect a stunning representation of how your beautifully composed picture is going to turn out until you get it onto your pc or tv screen. The electronic viewfinder is also good only to see what is in your photo - don't go looking for the details because you won't find them! Then again, an electronic viewfinder is a useful addition when taking photos in sunlight, and something often missed out on compact cameras these days. Whilst the LCD screen and viewfinder are nothing to shout about, both are needed and generally work very well.

With any high end compact camera which tries to cram dslr features into a tiny body, along with a massive zoom range in this case, you are going to have to make compromises somewhere. This usually comes in the form of poor image quality or lack of original features. The Olympus sp570 however is great across the board, let down only by the lack of a rechargeable battery along with the detail quality of the LCD screen, and comes highly recommended from this reviewer.