Olympus 560UZ

Reviewed January 2008

Characteristics

The 560UZ has a CCD sensor that measures 1/2.35 inches. Its effective resolution is eight megapixels. Pictures are crunched in the unit using Olympus's new TruePic III image processor. It has improved speed over its progenitors--capturing, in certain modes, three 10 megapixel frames a second--as well as better noise filtering, edge rendering and color correction.

The camera can capture images in 10 sizes from 3264 x 244 pixels to 640 x 480 pixels (see specifications section) at four quality levels, excluding RAW. At its highest quality level, SHQ, and in RAW available, photos can be captured 3264 x 2448 pixels. In addition, SHQ can take pics at 3264 x 2176 pixels with a 3:2 aspect ratio. A series of shots using the same test subject and camera settings (see Table 1) shows the compression ratio for images captured in SHQ to be in the 3.6:1 to 4:1 range. For smaller files in the same image sizes, the HQ setting can be used. Its compression range is 5.5:1 to 6:1.

At the SQ1 quality level, you can garner images in the 2560 x 1920 to 2048 x 1536 range. Each image size can be shot at one of two quality levels--high or normal. At the high settings, the compression ratio spreads from 3:1 to 3.4:1; at normal, it's 5.8:1 to 6.3:1.

At the fourth quality level, SQ2, images range from 1600 x 1200 to 648 x 480. At high quality, the compression ratio spans 2.5:1 to 3.4:1; at normal, it's 4.7:1 to 5.6:1.

In addition, there's a "high definition" mode, so named for its wide aspect ratio of 16:9, which is used by HDTVs. In that mode, which can't be used with the camera's optical zoom, the compression is around 4.7:1.

In video mode, three image sizes are available: 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second, with or without sound (SHQ); 320 x 240 at 15 fps (HQ); and 160 x 120 at 15 fps.

The 560UZ has a broad range of ISO, or light sensitivity settings. Increasing the ISO in a shot allows higher shutter speeds to be used in a scene--a valuable asset when operating in low light environments or when your subject won't stand still--but the tradeoff in the introduction of grain and noise into the photo. The camera has eight ISO settings that range from 50 to 6400 (see specifications), but they can't be used in every mode. For example, at ISO 6400, image size must be

less than 2048 x 1536. And if fine zoom or digital zoom is set to on, 6400 can't be used at all. In program, aperture preferred, shutter preferred, manual and My modes, ISO settings can quickly be changed with a menu that pops up on the screen by pressing the OK/FUNC button at the center of the arrow pad. If you don't want to deal with ISO settings, the camera will do it for you. Just choose "auto" from the ISO selection menu, or "high auto" if you want the camera to use higher-end ISO settings.

A big selling point of the 560UZ is its 18x monster zoom lens. The 35 millimeter equivalent of a 27-486 zoom, the lens not only lets you get up close and personal with your subject with a minimum of intrusion, but gives you a wide angle view of your shot at the low end of its range. What's more, the camera has something called a "fine zoom." It allows you to boost the magnification of the optical zoom to 27x with the aid of some image cropping.

Relatively bright with apertures spanning f2.8-f4.6, the zoom has 14 lenses in 11 groups, four aspherical lenses and two ED (extra-dispersion) lenses.

The lens also has two macro modes. Normal macro mode allows you to get as close as 3.94 inches to a subject. If that isn't close enough, then super macro mode lets you really get intimate--as close as 0.39 inches, or one centimeter.

Along with its 18x optical zoom, the 560UZ has 5.6x digital zoom. The default setting for the digital zoom, which is where most photographers would like to keep it since digital zooms tend to subtract rather than add anything to a shot. When the digital zoom is enabled, a red and white zoom bar appears on the camera's display. When you're zooming in the white, you're using the optical zoom; in the red, the digital zoom.

Ordinarily, pressing the shutter button halfway focuses the camera on the subject in front of the it. If the subject is moving, you can use AF Predict mode to lock the focus on your target and the camera will make any adjustments necessary to keep your target sharp. You can also turn off the halfway focusing feature by putting the 560UZ in Fulltime AF. In that mode, the camera will keep whatever is in front of it in focus and fully depressing the shutter button captures your shot immediately. One problem with autofocusing systems in general is that they can underperform in low lighting conditions. To compensate for that, the 560UZ has a built-in illuminator light to help its AF system cope with dark places.

The 560UZ runs on four AA batteries. With a quartet of Panasonic LR6 industrial alkalines, I shot more than 110 photos under a variety of conditions before I had to put a fresh foursome in the camera. As an experiment, I tried firing up the unit on non-alkaline AAs. I received a low power message immediately.

The camera has 47MB of internal memory, which is enough to get a feel for the device when it's taken out of the box, but in the long run, a memory card is highly recommended. Like all new Olympus bytecams, the 560UZ uses xD cards. They come in three flavors: standard, with a maximum capacity of 512MB; and M and H, with maximum capacities of 2GB. H cards store information faster than their M brothers so they're better suited for shooting video with the 560UZ.

Whatever make of xD card you choose, it will definitely boost your picture mileage before you have to do a computer dump (see specifications). For example, with the camera's internal memory, you can snap about 12 pics at SHQ quality, compared to 253 to 255 with a 1GB xD card. And for video, a card is a necessity. With internal memory, you can shoot 26 seconds of SHQ video with sound, compared to 40 seconds with a 1GB card. That improves substantially when shooting HQ video, however, from a little under 2.5 minutes to 29 minutes.

The Synchro mode has two settings. SYNC1 fires the flash as soon as the shutter opens. SYNC2 activates the flash just as the shutter closes. It can create some interesting effects, especially when coupled with slow shutter speeds and night photography.