Beat This: Olympus CAMEDIA SP-570UZ Has 20X Zoom!

Olympus CAMEDIA SP-570UZ 20x Zoom Digital Camera

Olympus Japan says their CAMEDIA SP-570UZ will start shipping on March 6, 2008 (MSRP ¥60,000 or $550). The new ultra-zoom features 20x optical zoom, with nobody in sight to challenge its perch on top of the zoom totem pole.

Olympus classifies the SP-570UZ under its Creative Camera category; it offers advanced manual controls experienced photographers demand and find on a digital SLR. You don’t change lenses with the SP-570UZ, but that could be an advantage because it precludes dust from wafting into the image sensor, an inconvenience that SLR users have to live with.

Aside from its 20x zoom (26-520mm equivalent) and 10-megapixel resolution, the SP-570UZ also offers:

• Dual Image Stabilization – sensor shift and digital to compensate for camera shake; with zoom this long, you’ll need this.

• Face Detection – to recognize a face in the scene and focus on the person, not the background

• Shadow Adjustment Technology – to compensate for difficult lighting situations and maintaining detail in highlights while improving the detail in the shadows to produce more balanced photos. This promises a lot, but if Nikon can do it with D-Lighting, Olympus surely also can.

[Site: Olympus Europa]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.