CNET Asia Review
7.4
out of 10View score
The bad: No manual zoom and hotshoe adapter; plastic tripod receptacle; half-pressing the shutter doesn't bring you out of the menus directly into shooting mode; continuous shooting limited to three frames; unusable pictures at ISO 3,200 and ISO 5,000.
The bottom line: The Olympus SP-550UZ would be a great travel camera, or a second camera with a wide focal range, at a competitive price.
Read full review of the Olympus SP-550 UZ »
Average User Rating
from 4 users
7.5
out of 10![]() |
'Olympus' |
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User Reviews
Great vacation camera - with great wide angle & macro view
Oct 22, 2007Rating: 8 out of 10 (Excellent)
Pros: Wide angle takes great scenery shots while macro allows zoom in for great closeups
Cons: A little bit bulky
Opinion:
Great camera - would definitely recommend this as your holiday companion. The wide angle allows you to take great shots of scenery and buildings. Images are crisp and sharp. Macro up to 1 cm - great for closeups. Zoom up to 18x allows you to zoom in on distant objects like little animals. Exceptional performance under dim lighting conditions - forgot to turn on the flash & though I thought photo would come out dark, it came out nice & clear - quite amazing. Camera looks really stylish & is very easy to use. Just bought this & brought it on vacation in Perth, didn't take much effort to learn to use it.
Good ideas, bad execution
May 11, 2007Rating: 6 out of 10 (Good)
Pros: 18x zoom, excellent build quality, good ergonomics
Cons: heavy focus-hunting, doesn't focus on the spot you selected, high ISO noise, poor edge sharpness
Opinion:
This camera was a good "me too!" attempt by olympus, and it's major selling point is the huge, impressive 18x zoom lens that starts at 28mm wide-angle.
That being said, having impressive numbers doesn't matter if the lens itself and the rest of the camera is a disappointment. While the ergonomics and the build quality are quite good, the camera suffers from heavy focus-hunting. For some reason it prefers to focus on objects in the edge of the shot rather than in the center, even if you select center-focus. In landscape shots at wide-angle, the whole image looks blurry. Focus speed is slow, I doubt it could keep up with a turtle in the zoo. :P
Nice try, but a poor match for the Sony and Canon ultrazooms.
Top-of-the-class Ultrazoom
Mar 15, 2007Rating: 8 out of 10 (Excellent)
Pros: 18x Optical Zoom, Rubber Grip, 28mm Lens, Solid Build, Uses AA Batt
Cons: xD card, IS in movie mode only works without sound
Opinion:
This is probably the best ultrazoom in the market today, the build is solid and the shots taken are from good to very good. Noise starts to creep in above ISO100, but even at ISO200 and ISO400, noise level is under control. I love the 28mm and 18x optical zoom lens, which is tops in its class. Image Stabiliser works great for still shots, but in order to use the IS in movie mode, sound has to be turned off. Great camera choice if you don't mind xD card format (max 2GB).
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