Olympus SP-510 UZ

Reviewed October 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

To obtain the highest image quality, all the images presented in this section were captured using the RAW mode, and then processed using the software Olympus supplies with the camera, Olympus Master.

Using the Auto white balance, the camera yields natural and accurate-looking colours.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

Using the zoom at its maximum magnification power, the detail the SP-510 UZ can capture is very apparent. The texture of the paper is clearly visible, as is the printing screen.

The Auto white balance yields colours that are consistent with those captured when the lens was set to the widest angle and the frame contained more of the subject. But, as noticed with the wide angle shot, shadow areas contain some noise.

MACRO PHOTO

Just like a number of other Olympus cameras, the SP-500 UZ is equipped with two macro modes.

The Standard Macro mode allows the camera to focus on a subject that is 7 cm (2.73 inches) from the front element of the lens when the zoom is at the wide angle end, and 1.2 m (4 ft) when it is at the maximum telephoto end. The narrow field of view captured at the wide end is 8.7 cm (3.4 inches) , while at the telephoto end it is 15 cm (5.85 inches).

Using the Super Macro mode locks the zoom at 10.5 mm, the equivalent of 65.7 mm on a 35 mm camera. The minimum focus distance is then 3 cm (1.2 inches) and the width of the field of view the camera captures is then 3.7 cm (1.44 inches). The Aperture Priority mode, which allows using a small aperture to increase the depth of field, produces the best results, and a lot of light should be available to obtain the best results.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

It is immediately noticeable that the lens is free of any serious barrel distortion at the wide end. Moreover, the image is sharp across the frame, and from corner to corner. The exposure evaluated by the default ESP pattern is very good, albeit with a slight slant towards the shadow areas.

The white balance once again produces very natural looking colours, and there is no discernable chromatic aberration. Still some noise can be discerned in the shadows of the beams.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

At the maximum telephoto, the contents of the frame change dramatically in comparison with the wide angle shot, and to take into account the brightness of the foreground, such as the cement astray, and the dark areas behind the glass doors, the metering was established on the uniformly lit wall to the right of the doors, and the shot reframed, resulting in a correctly exposed image.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera is capable of long exposures, a photo taken at night is included here.

Set to the Manual mode, the SP-510 UZ is capable of timed exposures as long as 15 seconds, more than sufficient to capture a bright image of the subject shown here.

The Manual mode is also equipped with a B (Bulb) mode, which keeps the shutter open as long as the shutter release is maintained pressed. However, as this would lead to camera shake, even with the camera mounted on a tripod, the mode should only be used in conjunction with the optional remote control.

The white balance is set to incandescent for this shot so as to obtain colours that are as natural as possible. Similarly, sensitivity is set to 50 ISO to limit the intrusion of noise as much as possible, in turn limiting the amount of noise reduction processing the camera has to do, and thereby limiting the loss of sharpness that noise reduction entails.

As can be seen below in the crop taken from the full-size image, the photo maintains an excellent level of sharpness, and even the writing on the buoy is discernable. Likewise, the graininess of the image is quite low.