Olympus SP-550 UZ Review
Review Date: April 30th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker
Leave
a comment about this Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were captured using the 7MP, SHQ 3072
x 2304 JPEG setting, producing a file that
is between 3.5-4Mb.
Noise
The Olympus SP-550 UZ has 8 ISO settings
from 50-5000. Noise starts to
appear very visibly upwards of ISO 800, and at ISO 1600 detail
is noticeably being lost and images take on an impressionistic,
painterly appearance. Why then Olympus has gone on to shoehorn
in even higher ISO 3200 and ISO 5000 options – with a resultant
drop in resolution – mystifies, though the suspicion is that
it’s only to beef up the spec list. Here are some
100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images at the default setting are a little soft and
benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe
Photoshop. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening
level if you don't like the default results.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Olympus SP-550 UZ handled chromatic
aberrations well during the review, with just a little purple
fringing present around the edges of the frame in particularly
high-contrast situations. Here are some 100%
crops which show the typical chromatic aberrations that you
can expect:
Macro
The Olympus SP-550 UZ offers
a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that
is 1cm away from the camera. The first image shows how close
you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash
card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Olympus SP-550 UZ
are Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill in, Off, Red-eye reduction & fill-in and Slow synchronization. These shots
of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Auto
Flash - Telephoto (504mm) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
And here are some portrait shots.
As you can see, both the Flash On and Red-eye reduction settings
caused a small amount of red-eye.
|
|
Flash
On (100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Red-eye reduction (100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
Night Shot
The Olympus SP-550 UZ's maximum shutter
speed is up to 8 minutes in the Bulb mode, which is great
news if you're interested in night photography. The shot
below was taken using a shutter
speed of 1/160th second, aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 50. I've
included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality
is like.
|
|
Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
Overall Image Quality
The Olympus SP-550 UZ is unarguably great for candid, reportage style snaps. I
was lucky enough to take the camera along to take some behind-the-scenes
photos of an advertising shoot based on a burlesque performance
theme. To start on a positive note, although a lot of noise
is introduced in low light, its anti shake mechanism works
pretty well in avoiding image
blur at the extreme telephoto end of the zoom – indeed much
better than expected given my initial impression that Olympus
was perhaps over-reaching itself here. Though there's the ability
to boost saturation in camera if you switch to one of the
creative
shooting modes, I found that images followed the familiar
Olympus trait of colours being a tad washed out straight
out of the camera, which had the effect of making skin appear
ever more porcelain-like. The aforementioned noise starts to
appear very visibly upwards of ISO800, and at ISO1600 detail
is noticeably being lost and images take on an impressionistic,
painterly appearance. Why then Olympus has gone on to shoehorn
in even higher ISO3200 and ISO5000 options – with a resultant
drop in resolution – mystifies, though the suspicion is that
it’s only to beef up the spec list.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Olympus SP-550 UZ have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
Compare Prices
Support PhotographyBLOG: Buy the Olympus SP-550 UZ from
one of our affiliate retailers:
|
RSS
Feeds
