Introduction

Ease of Use

Just like its predecessor, the Olympus SH-2 is a compact travelzoom that takes its design cues from the manufacturer's PEN line of compact system cameras. Encased in a retro styled, exquisite-looking aluminium alloy body, the Olympus SH-2 is arguably one of the most attractive travelzoom cameras we have ever come across.

Powered off, with its 24x zoom lens retracted for storage, the Olympus SH-2 easily fits into most pockets, making it easy to carry around even on long journeys and tedious hikes. Switch on the camera, and the lens extends in less than two seconds; a very good performance given the massive focal range on offer. The lens goes from 4.5mm to 108mm, which is equivalent to 25-600mm in 35mm terms. It's worth noting that in most interchangeable-lens systems, you would need a minimum of three (usually more) lenses to cover this range. Low-light focusing is aided by an AF assist light located top left of the lens surround (if viewed head on).

Front of the Olympus SH-2

The camera has a small but well sculpted, textured hand-grip, which provides a surprisingly secure hold and a good resting place for your fingers. The shutter release is in a natural location for your index finger, with the tactile zoom lever surrounding it. Right next to the shutter release is a small and recessed on/off button and a tiny LED that enables the photographer to quickly check if the camera is powered on.

On the other side of the shutter release / zoom lever combination you find the camera's mode dial, with positions for “intelligent” Auto, Programmed Auto, Manual, ART, Scene, Nightscape, Panorama, Photo Story and Advanced Movie modes. On the other side of the SH-2's top deck is the shooter's built-in flash. Completely recessed by default, the flash can be popped up manually using a tiny spring-loaded switch on the rear plate of the camera. There's no hot-shoe, so the only way to sync up an external flashgun with the camera is to use an optical slave (of the variety that isn't fooled by the pre-flashes emitted by the built-in unit). Unlike some other superzooms such as the Panasonic Lumix TZ70, the Olympus SH-2 has no eye-level electronic viewfinder, either.

This means that the pictures can only be composed on the 3” TFT monitor that occupies most of the camera's rear plate. Offering a resolution of 460,000 dots – which is adequate but certainly not outstanding –, this touch-sensitive display is fairly easy to see indoors and out, although its visibility is compromised in really strong daylight, particularly when covered with fingerprints – as is often the case with touchscreens.

Rear of the Olympus SH-2

To the right of the screen is a group of controls including a Playback button, a four-way navigation pad with a centred OK button, Menu and Info buttons. The camera also has a comfortable, textured thumb rest and a conveniently located, dedicated movie shutter release. A handful of functions, including flash mode, exposure compensation and self-timer/drive modes are mapped unto the four-way pad, but that's all as far as hardware controls are concerned. This means there are no direct-access buttons for white balance or ISO speed – these, alongside other shooting parameters like photo and video resolution, aspect ratio and picture mode can be adjusted via the camera's Function Menu, accessed by pressing the OK button. As with most Olympus compacts, the Playback button can be configured to act as a secondary power button when all you want to do is review the pics and videos stored on the memory card or the camera's internal memory.

Touchscreen controls include Touch AF, Touch Shutter and various playback functions. In intelligent Auto mode you can also touch the screen to change the live guide setting levels (the live guide is a simplified set of controls tailored to the needs of beginners).

Typically for a compact camera with a small, 1/2.3-type sensor, the lens appears not to have an iris diaphragm, which is the most probable reason why there is no Aperture or Shutter priority mode on offer. In the Manual shooting mode, you do get to change the f-stop but there are only two available settings at any given focal length, suggesting that the camera makes do with a built-in neutral density filter instead of a proper diaphragm. The Manual mode is still useful though, as you get to adjust the ISO and shutter speed as well as things like white balance, image resolution, focusing and metering modes, and an array of other shooting variables.

Top of the Olympus SH-2

If you rotate the mode dial to the ART position, you can choose from a range of popular 'art filters' including Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale&Light Colour, Dramatic Tone, Grainy Film, Pin Hole and Diorama. As far as scene modes are concerned, the usual suspects (Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Self Portrait, Indoor, Sunset, Cuisine, Document, Beach & Snow) are all present and correct, and the SH-2 throws in a few more for good measure. Interval Shooting allows the camera to take up to 99 successive frames automatically at user-specified intervals ranging from 10 seconds to an hour, while e-Porrait is a 'beauty' mode that smooths out wrinkles and hides skin imperfections in people shots. Super Macro and Backlight HDR are also found among the scene modes, although they should really be available as shooting options in P and M modes.

The brand new Nightscape Mode, on the other hand, has its very own position on the mode dial. This shooting mode has five options, including Night Portrait, Night Scene, Fireworks, Hand-held Starlight and Live Composite; the latter of which has trickled down from the manufacturer's OM-D line of compact system cameras. Live Composite is especially useful for capturing star trails without overexposing the other elements in the frame. The Panorama mode has two options – Auto and Manual. In Auto mode, you simply pan the camera and it automatically processes the images for you. In Manual Panorama mode, three frames are taken and combined by the camera. The user composes the shots using a guide frame and manually releases the shutter. Photo Story is an in-camera collage creator that offers multiple layouts. When shooting, the images are incorporated into the chosen layout frame set to create the desired collage.

The Olympus SH-2 In-hand

The Advanced Movie mode is one of the most compelling features of the Olympus SH-2. For starters, the camera can shoot 1080p Full HD movies at up to 60fps, complete with stereo sound and optical zoom – as well as 5-axis mechanical image stabilisation, which comes in especially handy when shooting hand-held in the telephoto range. If this wasn't enough, the SH-2 also allows you to record silent high-speed movies for slow-motion playback. Shooting at 120fps, you can record a video at a respectable 720p HD resolution, which is then played back at 30fps, i.e. four times slower. There is a 240fps option as well, although at this setting, resolution drops to 432×324 pixels. The Olympus SH-2 can also create a time-lapse movie for you in-camera, allowing you to compress up to five hours into a video clip of up to 20 seconds. There is a separate Photo In Movie mode, in which you can take up to a dozen stills while filming a movie. The Photo in Movie function is also enabled when shooting in P mode or M mode.

Just like its predecessor, the SH-1, the Olympus SH-2 features Wi-Fi connectivity. This means that the SH-2 can create its own wireless network and be controlled remotely via your smartphone or tablet. To take advantage of this, you need to have an Android or iOS device and download the free Olympus Image Share app from GooglePlay/iTunes. After that, everything is pretty straightforward. You simply touch the Wi-Fi icon on your camera's display to set up a connection. The Olympus SH-2 will provide you with an SSID and password, but you do not need to type in either of them – just launch the app on your phone and scan the QR code displayed by your camera with your phone. This is nearly as fast as using NFC (Near-Field Communication), a feature that the SH-2 doesn't offer. Once the connection is established, you can download images from the camera to your smartphone, or use the latter to remotely control the SH-2. The level of control provided is quite good – you can use the optical zoom, set white balance and ISO speed, change the auto focus area, select the desired drive mode, and of course fire the shutter.

In use, the camera proved to be quite responsive, with quick start-up, focus acquisition and shot-to-shot times. There are some small thoughtful touches, such as a two-axis electronic level gauge, that also improve the user experience. Focus hunting was  sometimes experienced in low-light situations, especially at the telephoto end, but it wasn't excessive. Other than this, and the afore-mentioned lack of an eye-level electronic viewfinder – which is more of the rule rather than the exception with cameras of this size – we found little to complain about. The Olympus SH-2 performs as you would expect from a modern carry-everywhere travelzoom camera.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

When we reviewed the SH-2's forebear the Olympus SH-1, we had some pretty serious issues with its image quality. That camera applied so much noise reduction to the photos it captured that they took on a watercolour-like look when viewed at 100% magnification – and there was nothing the user could do about it. Fortunately, Olympus addressed this issue in the SH-2 with a two-pronged approach. Firstly, they have applied some clever tweaks to the JPEG engine to make the images look more photograph-like, and secondly, they have added raw capture to the camera's list of features. As a result, the Olympus SH-2 offers a marked improvement in image quality over its predecessor. Of course, you shouldn't expect DSLR-level IQ from a tiny, pixel-packed sensor, but at least the SH-2 is no longer a let down in the image quality department.

Noise

The Olympus SH-2 has 7 sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 125/22° to ISO 6400/39°. JPEG noise reduction, while pretty evident in the images even at base ISO, is not nearly as aggressive as it was in the SH-1. The crops taken from the raw files clearly show how much noise there is in the images, but the option of shooting raw enables users to apply their favourite demosaicing and noise reduction algorithms to the photos, which gives them a lot more flexibility than being stuck with the in-camera processing.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 125 (100% Crop)	ISO 125 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The lens has an extremely versatile focal range, as demonstrated by the examples below.

25mm	600mm

Sharpening

The out-of-the camera images are a little soft and benefit from a little sharpening in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Olympus SH-2 has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the higher-quality option. The camera can also capture raw images.

16M Fine (100% Crop)	16M Normal (100% Crop)
16M RAW (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

For an ultra-zoom, the Olympus SH-2 produced remarkably little chromatic aberration. The examples below are the absolute worst cases of purple fringing we encountered while testing the camera.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Olympus SH-2 has a Super Macro mode, which enables it to focus as close ass 3cm. Unfortunately, Super Macro is available as a separate Scene Mode rather than a shooting option. The example below shows how close you can get to the subject; in this case, a Secure Digital memory card.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The camera has a pop-up flash that has to be raised manually. The available settings are auto, fill in, redeye-reduction and off. Note that the settings can only be adjusted when the flash is raised. These shots of a white ceiling were taken at a subject distance of 1.5m.

Suppressed Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)	Forced Flash - Wide Angle (25mm)
Suppressed Flash - Telephoto (600mm)	Forced Flash - Telephoto (600mm)

And here are some flash portraits. As you can see the flash did not produce a noticeable red-eye effect.

Forced Flash	Forced Flash (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction Auto	Red-eye Reduction Auto (100% Crop)

Night

The Olympus SH-2 brand new Nightscape Mode with five settings including Night Portrait, Night Scene, Fireworks, Hand-held Starlight and Live Composite; plus it offers a minimum shutter speed of 30 seconds in M mode, which is excellent news for photographers interested in night photography. The following photo was captured at a shutter speed of at a shutter speed of 13 second, aperture of f/3.0 and a sensitivity setting of ISO125/22°. We have provided a 100% crop for you to see what the quality is like.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

HDR

The camera has an HDR exposure blending mode, which takes advantage of its extremely fast sequential shooting capability to capture two exposures in rapid succession. These are then blended into a single image with improved highlight and shadow detail.

HDR Off	HDR On

Picture Modes

In addition to the ubiquitous Vivid, Natural and Muted options, the Olympus SH-2 has four special picture modes including Fish-Eye, Reflection, Sparkle and Fragmented.

Fish-eye	Fragmented
Sparkle	Reflection

Art Filters

The camera offers 7 'art filters': Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale&Light Colour, Dramatic Tone, Grainy Film, Pin Hole and Diorama.

Pop Art	Soft Focus
Pale&Light Color	Dramatic Tone
Grainy Film	Pin Hole
Diorama

Slow-Motion Video

The Olympus SH-2 has two hi-speed movie recording modes, HS120fps and HS240fps. These embedded videos demonstrate what kind of results you can expect from each. Notice how steady the footage is (especially the one shot at 720/120p) as a result of the camera's effective image stabilisation system.

Olympus SH-2 Slow-motion Movie Recorded at 120fps from photographyblog on Vimeo.

Olympus SH-2 Slow-motion Movie Recorded at 240fps from photographyblog on Vimeo.

 

Time-Lapse Movie

The Olympus SH-2 can record time-lapse movies of up to 20 seconds in length. The maximum recording time is five hours. The recording can be interrupted by the user at any point.

Olympus SH-2 Time-lapse Video from photographyblog on Vimeo.

Panorama

The Olympus SH-2 has a dedicated Panorama mode on its shooting mode dial.  The Panorama mode has two options – Auto and Manual. In Auto mode, you simply pan the camera and it automatically processes the images for you. In Manual Panorama mode, three frames are taken and combined by the camera. The user composes the shots using a guide frame and manually releases the shutter. The following panoramic image was captured in Auto Panorama mode.

Anti-Shake

The camera has a 5-axis anti-shake system, which works exceedingly well. The following crops, coming from two different images taken with and without IS at a focal length of 106mm (eq.) and a shutter speed of 1/6 second, demonstrate the capabilities of the image stabilisation system.

Antishake Off	Antishake On

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Olympus SH-2 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Olympus SH-2 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We’ve provided some Olympus RAW (ORF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2 / Flash Raised

Rear of the Olympus SH-2

Top of the Olympus SH-2

Bottom of the Olympus SH-2 / OK Menu

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Side of the Olympus SH-2

Front of the Olympus SH-2

USB Port

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Back in 2014 when we reviewed the Olympus Stylus SH-1, we really wanted to like that camera. After all, it was a beautifully crafted product with a great feature set, responsive operation and a versatile lens. However, we were somewhat let down by its image quality, specifically its sub-par JPEG engine and lack of raw image capture.

Thankfully, Olympus addressed both of these issues in the new SH-2 model. Obviously, a 1/2.3”-type sensor will never deliver the same picture quality as a 35mm full-frame imager, but the SH-2's out-of-camera JPEGs are much more “photograph-like” than the smudged watercolours produced by its immediate forebear. The raw files reveal the true amount of noise present in the images captured by the tiny, pixel-packed sensor – but they also allow you to experiment with different demosaicing and denoising algorithms, giving you much more flexibility than the strictly JPEG-only Olympus SH-1.

When it comes to handling, the SH-2 is every bit as good as its predecessor. It feels great in your hand courtesy of a small but well-sculpted, textured grip, which provides a surprisingly secure hold and a good resting place for your fingers. The touch-screen controls such as Touch AF work very well, and the camera feels very responsive in general. The new Live Composite mode, first seen in the manufacturer's OM-D line of compact system cameras, can be very useful when trying to capture star trails or light painting artworks. The high-speed sequential shooting modes, advanced movie recording options and on-board Wi-Fi make the Olympus SH-2 a very well-rounded offering within the travelzoom camera segment.

Its strongest competitor is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ70, another raw-capable compact that boasts an even more impressive 30x optical zoom and throws in an electronic viewfinder for good measure (but makes do without a touchscreen). In conclusion, the Olympus SH-2 is a very good travelzoom camera that will serve you well in a very wide range of shooting situations – as long as you don't have unrealistic expectations in terms of image quality.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Olympus SH-2.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Olympus SH-2 from around the web.

Specifications

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