Olympus SP-500 UZ

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By Evon Lim
Mar 13, 2006

Although Olympus' SP-500 UZ is small for a dSLR-like camera, it has a 6-megapixel CCD and many options for the photographer to play around with. Users are able to do street or sports photography with the help of the 10x optical zoom; macro photography with the 3cm Super Macro mode; and landscape photography with the frame assist function. The camera also has 21 scene modes that make it a versatile camera.

Design
The Olympus SP-500 UZ measures 105 x 74 x 71 and weighs 285g (without batteries and card). Even after you feed in the camera batteries, the unit doesn't feel heavy as the grip design for this unit allows the weight to rest on the hand comfortably. Our main gripe with the shooter is its plastic feel which feels compromising on the camera's sturdiness.

The SP-500 UZ allows one-hand operation because of its build--even though we still recommend using two hands for better support. The camera gains points for the wide ergonomic grip that creates a lot of support for the palm and the textured rubber which gives more stability when fingers rest on them. In addition, the area below the dial mode lets the thumb rest comfortably with slight support.

Although the shooter has a 2.5-inch LCD monitor that's both appealing and helpful for taking photos, the screen--that takes up two-thirds of the back of the unit--is often covered with thumbprints due to the camera's compact design.

The SP-500 UZ keeps many of its functions within the menu. There are not a lot of dials and buttons on the camera body, giving the unit a clean and simplified look. However, that also means there will be a lot of navigating to do within the menu itself. To redeem itself, there's an option to set three shortcuts on the menu button.

The camera has a simplified interface design but it can get quite frustrating for a new user to navigate within the menus with the confusion of the Ok button. When an option is selected, the user should use the right button (which doubles as Enter), but often the Ok button will be pressed by mistake and the menu will disappear. This can get quite frustrating and may take some time for a user to get used to.

Features
The SP-500 UZ offers an array of auto and manual modes for both aspiring photographers and advanced photographers. This 6-megapixel shooter provides 21 scene modes (Candle, Indoor, Sports, Sunset, Fireworks, Behind glass, etc.) for the user's convenience. These ready-to-go scene modes assist in shooting most common situations like dining under candlelight or a day at the beach.

With the Olympus xD-Picture Card, the camera allows users to take panoramic photos that can be stitched up with the accompanying Olympus Master Software in the package. However, this feature is available only to users who are using the company's xD-Picture Card. Stitching the individual frames using the software is simple enough.

The megazoomer comes with two macro shooting modes: One allows users to get as close as 7cm to the subject, another lets users stay only 3cm away from the subject, but the position of the optical zoom is fixed automatically and cannot be adjusted. Autofocusing in the macro mode is slower; and the lesser light there is, the slower it gets. On some occasions, it doesn't even focus at all.

10MB of internal memory isn't an awful lot, but it may just come in handy in some situations. One of the special features is the ability to do simple editing to the images within the camera. That includes red-eye removal, cropping, adding frames, making calendars, and adjusting brightness. Making calendars and adding frames to the images can be quite fun especially when you have a portable printer and photos can be printed with the frames right away sans neoprints.

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