Olympus SP-810UZ Review

#1 Warren Lyons

Nice combination of features and image quality for the price, but that using the full 864 focal length without either viewfinder or tripod is kind of like a 50 caliber sniper rifle with no sights.  This camera would be a winner if they included an electronic viewfinder

7:58 pm - Monday, January 23, 2012

#2 Ralf

I can’t understand, why this camera gets a “highly recommended” and Canon SX40HS only “recommended”. IQ with Canon ist much, much better (especially beyond 400ISO), it as an EVF, you can zoom during filming, ...

The samples of 810UZ are nearly the worst I have seen with a current superzoom.

6:36 pm - Tuesday, January 24, 2012

#3 Matt

This camera seems to have good value for money.
Canon & Panasonic, etc are more expensive and more feature packed.
I’m getting the FZ150 for RAW, better video and best fps in a superzoom. It may not have the reach, but you can always add a TC for that (bulky though).

10:37 am - Wednesday, January 25, 2012

#4 JET

Waiting to see some reviews on the just announced Pentax VS20.

Key Specifications
16 megapixel CCD Sensor
3-inch LCD
20x zoom lens (28-560mm equiv.)
Minimum focusing distance of 10mm in macro mode
Sensor-shift Shake Reduction
ISO 6400
HD video recording (720p)

More Pentax news at: http://www.pentaxforums.com/#ixzz1kja0SxFY

Lens is not in the same range, but more usable for most folks.

7:06 am - Saturday, January 28, 2012

#5 zebarnabe

I prefer the old Kodak K990 MAX given a bridge on a budget…

ISO performance is probably the biggest issue with this Olympus…

3:44 pm - Saturday, January 28, 2012

#6 luxornet

I agree with most of your conclusions except those related to image quality.
I saw more superior devices of only 3.2 megapixels. I mean the image details.

7:07 pm - Saturday, January 28, 2012

#7 Matt Grayson

using the full 864 focal length without either viewfinder or tripod is kind of like a 50 caliber sniper rifle with no sights.

Look at the full telephoto and wide samples. That spire is the little teeny tiny speck in the middle of the frame on the wide shot. They were both done hand-held. :O)

3:28 pm - Monday, January 30, 2012

#8 ^Daniel

I agree with comments this review feels like a bought AD.

I am totally allergic with noise since i bought the hyped Casio EX fc100.

This camera is totally useless above iso 200, and for that it should be impossible to get more than a 3 in picture quality.

Also the jpegs show so much compression artifacts im not all that sure my Galaxy S2 phone wont outperform this camera on the macro shots.

Having to go through all your photos with neat noise filter in Adobe photoshop sucks pixelated @
>^_*!

oh well besides raging im glad you showed me the way to the panasonic g3, was deciding on that or the Nex 5n

The focusing on G3s screen is awesome!

10:04 pm - Monday, February 6, 2012

#9 Augustin Man

As the SP-810 has been presented as an upgrade of SP-800, I’ll also make my considerations by comparing the two cameras.

It’s rather unusual, but for those who don’t want to read it all, here is the conclusion: SP-810 is even more a P&S than SP-800, but the IQ is better and the IS much better. It’s a camera for a hobbyist traveller, not for a photographer traveller.

The aspect of 810 is more impressive, but the shooting position is with the lens more extended, like the 800 on super macro setting. It seemed the Olympus people also saw this, so if you switch to display mode, the lens retracts after 15s. Of course when you switch back, there is a notable extra time to revert to the shooting position. They also changed the functioning of the display button: you can start displaying and switch to shooting mode, but you have to put off the camera using the general on/off button, something better I think.

From the tests I’ve made, mainly landscape and zoom by day in P mode, by night SCN-Night Scene, the 810 was all the time better than 800.

Other observations: I’ve imagined that the 810 was more than 800 in choices; well, I was wrong, because the 810 is much LESS: for instance, the SCN-Night Scene has the timer only, compared to the added EV and WB of 800. There is no bracketing, no colour editting and the setting menu was significantly reduced. There isn’t the AREA choice of AF, something rather disturbing, as you have to choice SPOT or try refocusing again and again; a tip is to zoom in to the wanted area and than zoom out again; the mark will remain there. Also shooting movies with sound prevents using the zoom, something clearly explained in the 800 Instruction Manual, but not in the 810 one; in exchange the so called “Fine Zoom” of 800 is no more called like this, but explained as a trimmed raw image and, more important, shown at the zoom scale also. The All Erase option was migrated to the display menu, probably better, I don’t know…

That’s all for the moment.

My advice: if you are a hobbyist in love with big zooms like me, go and get an 810, because it’s better and cheaper than 800; otherwise think again…

P.S. One says “an image is worth a thousand words”, so here you find some of my tests with this camera:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106913078899624028286/ZoomExperiencesWithOlympusSP810UZ

Happy shooting!

7:46 am - Tuesday, February 7, 2012

#10 Augustin Man

@Matt Grayson and @Ralf: I’m sorry to contradict both of you.

Matt, did you see my shots taken with hand held camera by day and with a Gorillapod by night?

Ralf, probably Canon SX30 or 40 is a better camera (generally I’ve had Canon cameras,I went this time for Olympus mainly because it’s significantly smaller), but please give me a link to some zoom samples (I’m not talking about many other features Canon is having and Olympus isn’t). When SX30 went to market, everywhere there was only a beautiful image of an eagle, but without any information about zoom. Thank you. Oh,I forgot: you can zoom while filming, but without sound; they say it’s not to interfere with the zooming noise; I don’t agree, but that’s what they say… A much better camera for filming is the tiny SZ-30MR (24X optical zoom).

I wish you both happy shooting!

Augustin

9:36 am - Wednesday, February 8, 2012

#11 João

meeh!... Nice ultra zoom, but look at that image quality =X I own a panasonic FZ38 and pictures look much better(12Mpx sensor), movie mode is also better, with stereo sound recording, zoom and manual controls during capture. 18x optical zoom “only”, but it’s enough.

7:03 pm - Tuesday, February 14, 2012

#12 SANKAR KUMAR GHOSH

most disadvantage is no electronic view finder

11:42 am - Tuesday, May 8, 2012