Olympus SP-550 UZ Review

Review Date: April 30th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	4
Image Quality	3.5
Value for Money	4

With an asking price of £375 in the UK, which is similar to what some retailers are now asking for body-only DSLR deals, potential purchasers of the Olympus SP-550 UZ face a hard choice – particularly those who are upgrading from a simple point-and-shoot, and don't already have the increased flexibility of a prosumer camera. Build quality is however good given its mainly plastic frame – the camera is solidly fashioned, attractively finished, and with batteries inserted feels capable of withstanding a few knocks in the heat of the action. The necessary unfurling of that zoom lens however does slow down responsiveness. That given, the most disappointing feature of the Olympus SP-550 UZ is the images themselves, which benefit from sharpening and their colours boosting in the image editor of your choice. Noise is also something of a problem when attempting low or natural light shots, suggesting that the best use for the camera is candid snaps in the park on a bright sunny day. If you do so you'll find the majority of photos are far from terrible; close ups are OK (down to an impressive 1cm) and shots taken at extreme telephoto can be surprisingly crisp, but there's certainly room for improvement. Unless you really long for an 18x reach from a small package and/or don't want to spend a small fortune on a whopping DSLR lens, I'd be tempted to save up a little more and buy an Olympus E-400 DSLR instead for greater responsiveness.

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.

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