When you pick up
the 560UZ, you'll notice that at nigh 13 ounces it's heftier
than many point-and-shoot cameras. Personally, I've always
felt a little heft is desirable--as long as I wasn't trying
to slip the hefty object in a shirt pocket--because it gave
me better control over the camera. That feeling may be more
perception than reality, but there's no denying that this
Olympus offering feels substantial--more SLR than point-and-shoot.
The matte black unit also has a hand grip on its right side
that makes it comfortable to hold with either one hand or with
a classic two-hand clutch. Not only is the front of the grip
rubberized, but an area behind it is, too, so both fingers and
thumb have good purchase. The camera itself is made of polycarbonate
plastic and aluminum.
A mode dial
is located on top of the camera (see Photo 1). Olympus does
a good job of keeping the dial simple and not overpopulating
it with functions and icons. Here's what's on the mode dial.
Auto--Strictly a point and shoot function. All settings
are controlled by the camera. When in auto mode, you
can't access the camera menu for altering items like
white balance, ISO (light sensitivity), exposure compensation
and such.
P-Programmed
mode. It will automatically choose the aperture and shutter
settiings appropriate for the light available for the
shot. You can access the camera menu and alter settings
like white balance and ISO.
A--Aperture Preferred mode. It allows you to choose
the aperture for a shot and the camera will automatically
choose the correct shutter speed for it. Arrow heads
beside the aperture setting on the unit's display indicate
how to use the camera's arrow pad to modify that setting
for a shot. Beside the aperture setting, is an exposure
compensation setting. It alows you to overexpose or
underexpose your shot. If the correct exposure for a
shot can't be obtained, a red aperture setting will
appear on the LCD. When you decide on a setting, you
press the OK button in the center of the arrow pad to
lock in the settings for the shot.
S--Shutter
Preferred mode. The flip side of aperture preferred, it
lets you set the sutter speed and the camera automatically
chooses an apprpriate aperture setting.
M-Manual mode. It allows you to control the aperture
and shutter speed for a shot. Exposure compensation
will be shown on the LCD to tell you if a shot is over
or under exposed. If you've chosen aperture and shutter
settings that over or under expose a scene by more than
three EV, the setting will be displayed in red. Long
exposure, or "bulb" shots, can be taken in
this mode. Exposures up the eight minutes long can be
snapped that way, too, but only with ISO settings of
50, 100 or 200.
MY--My
Mode allows you to create your own shooting modes. You
can manually pick a group of settings and save them in
one of four customized modes--MY1 through MY4.
SCN-- Scene mode. A twist
of the dial to this setting displays icons and explanations
for 25 pre-sets designed to meet a variety of shooting
conditions. The icons are located in a column by the
left side of the LCD. When you select an icon, its
name, as well as an illustrative photo of what shooting
condition the mode was designed to address appears
to the right of it. After a short pause, a description
of the mode appears on the screen. This method makes
it easier to use the these modes. You don't have to
remember what icon represents what mode; you can see
what a photo taken with the mode is supposed to look
like; and you don't have fumble with the user's guide
looking for more detail on the mode.
GUIDE--This
a nifty mode to give you even more flexibility when taking
a shot. When using Scene mode, a number of settings might
be altered for a situation. With Guide, only a particular
setting might be altered. For instance, you may only want
to brighten a subject. Guide will give you some choices
for doing that--increase exposure compensation, for instance,
or use fill-flash. Among the Guide's choices is a "shoot
with effects preview." It lets you see examples of
an effect on a scene. So if you wanted to see what would
happen if you changed the white balance in scene, it would
show you thumbnails of your shot as it would look with
different white balance settings. You simply choose the
thumbnail that looks best to you and those white balance
settings will be chosen for the shot.
Movie- Movie mode allows you
to shoot made for TV video--640 x 480 pixels at 30
frames a second--as well as Web-sized 320 x 240 at
15 fps. Only silent movies can be shot with the unit's
optical zoom, although its digital zoom can be used
with talkies.
Playback--Playback
mode. In this mode, images in internal memory or on a
memory card are dislayed on the camera's LCD. You can
page through single pics with the arrow pad. Photos taken
in burst mode can be displayed by pressing a button beside
the shutter release.
At five o'clock from the mode dial is the camera's power
button. It's labeled "power," which non-English
speakers and icon-o-philes may find disconcerting.
At two o'clock is the shutter release. You can lock the camera's
focus on a subject by partially depressing the release. When
the subject is in focus, you can finish the stroke and the
camera will fire. Depending on the scene conditions and shooting
settings, shutter lag can be significant--as much as 1.7 seconds.
When shooting movies, you lock the focus in the same way,
then fully depress the button to start capturing video; depress
it again to stop shooting.
Around the shutter release button is a tabbed ring for controlling
the unit's motor-operated zoom. The close proximity of zoom
control and shutter release are a winning combination. In
addition to controlling the zoom, in playback mode the lever
is used for enlarging images on the camera's LCD, choosing
pictures from an array of thumbnails on the screen or picking
pictures from days in calendar mode.
Beside the shutter release is a button for toggling the unit's
digital image stabilzation (DIS). That technology helps reduce
the effects of camera shake by boosting the ISO for a shot.
The higher the ISO, the higher the shutter speed. High shutter
speeds can neutralize some camera jitters. In playback mode,
the DIS button is used to display images snagged with one
of the camera's several sequential shooting modes. What's
more, the button can be redefined. If you don't want the DIS
menu to pop up when you press the button, you can define it
to do something else such display the image quality menu or
the continuous shooting menu.
In addition to DIS, the 560UZ has Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization.
It actually adjusts the unit's CCD to compensate for shake
that may be magnified when zooming in on a subject or because
of slower shutter speeds needed for low-light shooting.
The
back of the camera (see photo 2) is dominated by its high-resolution
color display, which measures 2.5 inches diagonally. The
230,000-pixel LCD is bright and sharp. Five brightness
levels can chosen from the unit's set-up menu. Scenes
as they will be captured by the camera are displayed accurately.
In direct sunlight, there's a significant degree of wash-out,
but scenes are discernable and menu choices can be easily
read. Still, in stances where sunlight hits the display
directly, many shutterbugs will most likely resort to
the electronic viewfinder found above the LCD--even if
the viewfinder doesn't have all the fidelity of the main
display. On the left side of the viewfinder is a diopter
control for adjusting the small screen to a shooter's
eyesight. At a five o'clock angle to the viewfinder is
a button for toggling between the main display and the
electronic one.
The circular arrow pad for
navigating through the camera's menu system abuts
the right side of the main display (see photo 3).
Pressing the pad at 12 o'clock moves up the camera's
display; three o'clock, right; six o'clock, down;
and nine o'clock, left. In addition, each of those
points will give you quick access to menus for some
commonly used functions. For example, the 12 o'clock
point will show the exposure compensation bar on the
LCD; three o'clock point will pop up the flash menu;
the six o'clock point, the self-timer menu; and the
nine o'clock point, the macro menu.
Additional
controls surround the arrow pad.
· There's a menu button for displaying menus. Pressing the button
from within a menu backs out of it.
· There's a view button. In shooting mode, pressing the button
displays the last image captured by the camera. In playback mode, the
button can be used to print snaps directly to a PictBridge-enabled printer.
· There's a display button that changes the information on the
unit's LCD. In shooting mode, it cycles through a "normal" display
with information on shooting mode, shutter speed, aperture, image resolution,
shots remaining and storage source--internal memory or xD card; a simple
display with all information removed from the screen; a frame-assist display,
which includes all the information from the normal display plus a grid
for help in composing shots; and a screen with normal info plus a histogram.
In playback mode, one screen displays normal information, another displays
more detailed info, a third has no info and the fourth has a thumbnail
of the photo being reviewed and a histogram for it.
· There's also a button for toggling the camera's Shadow Adjustment
Technology. In scenes where a subject is photographed against a bright
background, the technology tries to keep the subject from being underexposed.
In playback mode, the button is used for erasing photos in the camera.
In the front of the camera is its 18x Olympus ED
zoom lens, which extends 2.5-inches from the unit's body in wide mode
and about four inches at maximum maginfication.
On the left side of the camera is a button
for activating the built-in flash (see photo 4) and a compartment
containing a jack for an AC coverter and a mini-USB port. Unlike
some cameras, the flash in this unit does not automatically pop-up
when it's needed. Personally, I find this approach less irritating
than the auto-pop method, but, admittedly, it makes the camera
less than fully automatic.
On
the right side of the camera is a compartment for the unit's xD storage
card (see photo 5 [15]) and at the bottom of the unit is a small speaker,
quarter-inch tripod socket and battery compartment for four AA batteries.
Physically,
the 560UZ is a well-designed package. You don't need infant-sized fingers
to manipulate the camera's controls. And those controls are thoughtfully
placed on the unit--they're easy to see and easy to reach while shooting.
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Ergonomics
