Olympus SP-550UZ

Reviewed March 2007

Image Quality

Although the Olympus SP-550 UZ retains a number of characteristics, such as its CCD resolution, from the SP-510 UZ — the camera from which it is descended — it adds a stabilized 18X optical zoom, a first for a compact digital camera, and doubles the 2.5-inch LCD monitor's pixel count.

These features make this bridge camera a very serious alternative for anyone contemplating the purchase of an entry-level digital SLR.

Not only is the SP-550 UZ reasonably priced, but its size and weight are negligible in comparison to the dSLR lenses that would be needed to match its optical capabilities.

The SP-550 UZ's zoom lens is equivalent to a 28 to 504 mm on a 35 mm camera, and has apertures that start at f2.8 at the wide angle ned, and f4.5 at the telephoto end, making it relatively bright.

Equipped with a good wide angle, the SP-550 UZ is well-suited for landscape or architecture photography. Moreover, barrel distortion is well corrected and is minimal, as is pincushion distortion at the telephoto end of the zoom.

Similarly, chromatic aberration is light, but becomes more noticeable in the corners of the image when there are strong contrasts. Sharpness is excellent, and uniform throughout the image, although images captured at the wide end and the biggest apertures tend to be slightly softer.

The SP-550 UZ is marketed as having a dual stabilization system: one that physically reduces vibrations at the level of the CCD, and another that boosts ISO sensitivity to increase shutter speed, both systems being independent. Clearly, however, the CCD stabilization system is much more beneficial to the image quality than the other.

At sensitivities between 50 and 100 ISO, images are free of any noise when captured with sufficient light.

At 200 and 400 ISO, noise becomes detectable, but only in shadow areas, or areas of uniform colour. At 400 ISO, noise is comparable to what many other cameras yield at 200 ISO. And indeed, at 800 ISO the noise content of the SP-550 UZ's images is comparable to what many others yield at 400 ISO. Beyond these levels, however, images become noisy, and even with the image size reduction imposed as of 3200 ISO, made us wonder about the value of a 5000 ISO sensitivity level.

Even when faced with the variable light of springtime, the ESP metering mode consistently produces very well balanced images. Indeed, although their availability can be critical under some circumstances, at no time during the test of the camera was there ever a need to switch to either the centre-weighted pattern, or the spot meter to obtain a good exposure.

Likewise, it is worth noting that although many shots were captured under lighting conditions that create strong contrasts, the metering never yielded an image with burnt out highlights.

The Auto white balance generally produces images exhibiting natural-looking colours that are not over-saturated. One slight weakness was observed, however, when the Auto white balance setting is used under incandescent light: it can cause some unexpected variations in colour cast, making it preferable to either set the white balance manually, or use the incandescent preset.

The auto focus system of the SP-550 UZ turns in a decent performance without being particularly fast. We also noted that at the longer focal lengths it can occasionally become a bit more hesitant when the subject is insufficiently contrasted.

Offering a broad panoply of image sizes (10 in total) in JPEG format with a choice of two compression levels, the SP-550 UZ also offers a RAW format. The image quality obtained with the least compression, the SHQ format, is generally perfect and ideal for most situations.

The RAW format, on the other hand, offers complete editing flexibility as it records all the colour data captured by the CCD.

One drawback of the RAW format, however, is the time the SP-550 UZ requires to save a RAW image, approximately 7 seconds, a span of time during which no other camera operation is possible.

Furthermore, the software included with the camera, Olympus Master 2, regrettably does not offer any advanced tools to process RAW images. For example, there are no tools for noise reduction, or to fine tune the white balance using a white or gray point selection tool.

The pop-up flash of the SP-550 UZ has no difficulty providing light for the widest angle of the zoom, and is ideal at low ISO settings for fill-in light. Still, to increase its reach, it is best to boost the sensitivity, or set the sensitivity to Auto ISO and allow the camera to increase it as necessary, even if a slight increase in noise may result.

Equipped with a stabilization system that is remarkably effective and a powerful 18X zoom, so far the SP-550 UZ is in a realm of its own. Yet the SP-550 UZ is probably at the vanguard of a new wave of compact cameras that will offer very long optical zooms and active stabilization systems that operate either within the lens, or at the level of the CCD.