Digital Camera Review by: Michael Gazzola

The new Olympus SP-500UZ is a small and feature filled ‘pro-sumer’ 6 mega-pixel digital camera. The camera is light weight but sturdy and still has a good balance and feel in the photographers hands.

Although the camera is compact, it still has room for a 2.5 inch LCD screen, an electronic viewfinder and space for a series function buttons and dial – with more functions!

The SP-500UZ is very easy to use and has a number of similar functions to the Olympus compact range, for anyone looking to upgrade to a higher end Olympus camera. The dial has pro influenced options such as Manual control, Aperture control and Shutter control plus easy options such as Scene and Auto selections. Another pro functions is the option to shoot in RAW capture mode – for those looking to capture a little extra detail.

The menu navigation is quite good with simple diagrams and a user-friendly layout to help the photographer find what they’re after.

Images captured were sharp and crisp. Even at a full zoom the images outdoor remained sharp although the camera struggled a little in rooms with low light, taking a little longer to focus. The zoom range is excellent, with a 10x optical zoom 38-380mm (35mm equivalent) keeping travellers happy along with nature enthusiasts. Although at 380mm you better have a steady hand as you will be test for camera shake with slower shutter speeds.

The colour reproduction of images taken were good, with skin tones hitting the target in daylight, tungsten and fluorescent light conditions and reproducing slightly cooler tones using camera’s flash.

The flash on this camera is worth mentioning as it has great coverage and is a real step up from the regular compact range. And even with the extra power the flash still manages to read each photographic situation well providing a correct exposure pretty much every time.

The viewfinder is a little darker than the LCD but still good for framing an image if you’re a traditionalist, however we conducted our tests using the LCD as it was bright and easy to use.

At the end of the day, a final, and nice touch worth mentioning is that the camera doesn’t come with a power lead and doesn’t come with a charger… but simply an empty battery slot ready to take good old fashioned AA (alkaline) batteries which can be purchased in any supermarket or milk bar, or AA rechargeable NiMH batteries… 4 of them.

Appearance rating	4 stars
Functionality rating	4 stars
Image quality	4 stars
Value for money	4 stars
RRP (AUD)	$599 stars
Effective Pixels	6 Million mega pixels
Image Sizes	9 Sizes
Lens - zoom wide [mm]	38mm (35mm equivalent )
Lens -zoom tele [mm]	380mm (35mm equivalent )
Lens - Optical Zoom	Yes, 10x
Resolution Settings	From 640 x 480 to 2816 x 2112
Shooting Modes	21 Scene options
Manual Focus	No
Auto Focus	Yes
Focus Range [cm]	7cm to infinity
Aperture Range	F2.8 - F8.0
Aperture Priority	Yes
Macro	Yes
Macro Range [cm]	3cm (Super Macro Mode)
Shutter Speeds	15 seconds - 1/1000
Shutter Priority	Yes
ISO	80, 100, 200, 400 and Auto
LCD Monitor	Yes
LCD Size	2.5 inch TFT LCD colour monitor
Viewfinder	Yes, EVF
Flash	3 mode options plus auto
Hot Shoe	No
White balance	4 options, 3 custom and Auto
Self Timer	Yes
Movie Options	Yes. Limited only by memory card size.
Video Out	Yes. AV out
Storage Type	xD-Picture Cards (16MB - 1GB)
Storage Included [Mb]	Onboard memory, 10Mb
Image / Audio Formats	Jpeg, RAW and QuickTime Motion Jpeg
Connectivity	USB
Power Source	4x AA batteries
Battery Options	AA (Alkaline) / NiMH Rechargable batteries
Dimensions	105.5mm x 74.5mm x 71mm
Weight	285g without battery or card

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