Olympus SP-590 UZ – 26x optical zoom but bad photo quality

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Four group of custom settings for MyMode, has 26x optical zoom.

Thumbs Down:

The images contain softness and noise even at low ISO sensitivities.

Inside the Trunk:

Utilities, drivers and Olympus Master software. Included accessories microSD to XD adapter, Hand strap, Lens cap. Included cables are AV cable and USB cord.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Olympus SP-590 UZ is a 12 mega pixels camera, light sensitivity options include ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 80, has 5x digital zoom, shooting programs include Night scene with portrait, Multiple exposure, Soft background, Multi-firework, Portrait mode, Bird watching, Sports mode, Night scene, Smile shot, Beach/snow, Landscape, Fireworks, Documents, Cuisine, Sunset, Indoor, Candle, Beauty.

Exposure modes include Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Automatic, Program, Manual, Bulb. White balance presets include Fluorescent light (warm white), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Tungsten light, Sunlight, Overcast. Videos are stored in MJPEG, AVI format, images are stored in JPEG, RAW format. Video storage resolution options are AVI – 320 x 240, AVI – 640 x 480, AVI – 640 x 480, image storage resolution options are JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 3968 x 2232, JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1280 x 960, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2560 x 1920, JPEG 3968 x 2976.

SP-590 has Zoom lens – 4.6 mm – 119.6 mm – F/2.8-5.0, which has focal length of 4.6 mm – 119.6 mm, has 26x optical zoom, lens aperture is F/2.8-5.0, minimum focus range is 3.9 inches, macro focus range is 1 cm. The display of the camera is 2.7 inches big with 230,000 pixels.

Additional features include Automatic Pixel Mapping (APM), Shadow Adjustment Technology, Digital image stabilization, Display brightness control, Dual image stabilization, Digital noise reduction, Interval shooting mode, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, YouTube capture mode, PRINT Image Matching, Saturation control, PictBridge support, Sharpness control, Resizing an image, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Contrast control, Built-in speaker, Audio recording, Face detection, Direct print, DPOF support.

Connectors on the camera include HDMI output, DC power input, USB and Composite video/audio output. Supported operating systems are Apple Mac OS X 10.3 – 10.5, MS Windows Vista, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows XP. The camera runs on 4 AA sized batteries.

Razzle Dazzle:

Design of the Olympus SP-590 UZ is typical of a mega zoom camera, it has a plastic chassis and a rubberized large grip on the sides to accommodate the four AA sized batteries. The protrusion of the battery compartment also makes it easy to hold the camera while shooting. The bottom of the camera comes out beneath the lens to provide a good mount for tripod.

Inside Dope:

Olympus is a giant in the camera market and when it comes to making longs lens cameras, Olympus is the first name that comes to mind. In order to make a market competitive mega zoom camera, the length of the lens is important but other things such as good photo quality, useful feature set and fast performance must be taken care of. Unfortunately, the SP-590 UZ lacks in these features.

If you are a camera enthusiast and have used such mega zoom devices, you won’t need much time to get used to the SP-590 UZ. Apart from all the usual buttons, there is Beauty mode on mode dial which slightly blurs skin. However, you get only a 2 mega pixel image and the time between shots is approximately 20 seconds. There is MyMode which holds four groups of programmed settings including those of focal length. The OK/Func button gets you to the frequently used settings which include compression, image size, metering, ISO sensitivity, white balance and drive mode. You get high speeds for the standard continuous shooting mode but you get reduced images, for 10fps and 6fps, you get 3 and 5 mega pixels respectively. There are dedicated buttons for self timer, macro mode, flash, compensation, toggle button for Shadow Adjustment and a programmable button for features like focus mode, focus/AE lock and image stabilizer. While recording the video, you get to use the optical zoom but the best the device can do in videos is 30fps VGA mode.

The speed of the SP-590 UZ was very good except in conditions of dim light. It takes 1.6 seconds to power on and start shooting which is really fast. Focus speed is 0.6 seconds in bright light conditions, which is on par with the best in the class and in dim light conditions it is 1.4 second which is very slow. Shot-to-shot times too are very fast at 2 seconds without flash and with flash, it is 2.5 seconds. However, continuous shooting rates are really slow with 1.2 fps.

The colors look different on the screen, but it refreshes quickly even in conditions of low light. As with most LCDs, this screen couldn’t take bright sunlight, the screen appears totally blank.

The photo quality is average for a mega zoom camera, on a scale of 10 we would rate it at somewhere around 7. Even at low ISO settings, the photos lacked sharpness, had noise and also the painterly artifact that you usually see in higher ISO settings. This makes the prints look soft. Colors are accurate but not pleasing and vibrant. On the bright side, there is no fringing, the exposures and metering is good. Low resolution videos taken from the camera are good only for putting on sites like YouTube. We were disappointed that there was no zoom or audio available for this feature.

The SP-590 UZ storage options are disappointing, you get slot which can take microSD cards through the xD adapter and Olympus’s proprietary xD-Picture cards.

Nitty Gritty:

Olympus SP-590 UZ, boasts of a 26x mega zoom lens but overall, it is an average quality camera. We would ask you to give up your pursuit if you are looking to buy this. Instead go for a cheaper camera or put some more money in and get a high end model.