Olympus SP-350

By Theano Nikitas, CNET.com
Jan 16, 2006

If you're looking for a full-featured, moderately priced high-resolution camera, the Olympus SP-350 certainly qualifies. But if you're concerned about performance or photo quality, it's probably worth spending a little extra on a competitor.

Design
The smart-looking, matte-black, 8-megapixel Olympus SP-350 is one of three cameras that launched Olympus's SP line; the other two are its 7-megapixel twin, the SP-310, and the 6-megapixel, 10x zoom, SP-500 UZ. The Barbie-size SP-350 is not only one of the most affordable 8-megapixel cameras on the market but also one of the smallest. Its 24 scene modes will appeal to snapshooters, while enthusiasts will appreciate this pocketful's manual controls, RAW-capture and custom settings, and optional conversion lenses, external flash, and underwater housing. Once you get past those attractions, however, you're left with relatively mediocre performance and photos.

Despite its diminutive size, the moderately lightweight 238g (when equipped with one CR-V3 or two AA batteries and an xD-Picture Card) Olympus SP-350 handles surprisingly well. Photographers with sizable mitts may feel cramped by its tiny buttons, but its controls are arranged within easy reach around the 2.5-inch LCD. Other than flash, exposure compensation, aperture, and shutter speeds--which you can control directly with the navigation buttons--all other functions are menu-driven; you even have to scroll through the tabbed menu to turn on the macro setting, which slowed shooting on a couple of occasions.

Features
But the menus are filled with sophisticated features, such as metering and focusing options, RAW capture (with basic onboard RAW editing and conversion), user-controllable noise reduction and flash intensity, and white-balance compensation for fine-tuning color bias. You can set and save four groups of parameters and access them via the mode dial. Sharpness, contrast, and saturation are adjustable an amazing five full steps up or down. The Olympus SP-350's multiple burst modes include bracketing for focus as well as exposure. A time-lapse feature captures images over an extended period, and in Manual mode, the Bulb feature allows long exposures. The camera also has a high-resolution movie mode.

The 38mm-to-114mm (35mm equivalent) lens zooms smoothly through its focal range, although the autofocus lags a nanosecond behind. Equipped with an AF illuminator, the Olympus SP-350 can accurately focus under low light; it may take a hair longer than you'd like, but the camera does lock. Although the LCD gains up in low light, it has relatively low resolution and tends to wash out in bright sunlight, leaving you to take your chances with the tiny--but bright--optical viewfinder.

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