Olympus SP-500 UZ Reviews & Tests

Five and a half years ago, long before Panasonic launched the FZ series, before Canon, Kodak, Minolta - or anyone else for that matter - had joined the 'big zoom' party there was the Olympus C-2100UZ. With its image-stabilized 10x zoom, electronic...

Decent results with good detail and natural color Low noise at low ISO settings, still fairly low at ISO 400 Comprehensive photographic controls Rugged, lightweight construction and excellent handling Lots of scene/subject modes Huge range of advanced...

JPEG images look soft compared to much of the competition Mild exposure problems in high contrast / bright scenes Writing to xD picture card slow (much better with newer high speed cards). Raw mode slow (much better with newer high speed cards)....

Taken on its own merits the SP-500UZ is a more than capable camera with a huge feature set, great handling and perfectly good results - at a very competitive price point. But the 'super zoom' sector is one of the most fiercely competitive markets in...