The seven megapixel Olympus SP-510UZ

Olympus just dropped a new 7.1 megapixel member of the Ultra Zoom family on us, and this is one shooter that thrives at night. Although it's got a fairly impressive maximum ISO of 1600 and a very impressive 10x optical zoom at full resolution, the real fun comes when you step the SP-510UZ down to 3 megapixels; at that res, you can bump the ISO all the way up to 4000 and employ a special Fine Zoom of 15x -- you know, for late night sporting events and such. Like its 6 megapixel predecessor, the SP-500UZ, this model also sports a 2.5-inch LCD, digital image stabilization, and support for those same damn xD cards that would seem to encourage consumers to turn to other brands. Still, if this sounds like your type of cam, you'll be able to pick one up in September for around $490.

[Via Digital Camera Review]

[DJ @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:54AM]

It's not just the xD card that should make potential buyers a little leary, but battery life too.

I love Olympus cameras, having owned 5 different ones, including a C-765 currently. Optics have always been great but battery life, especially compared to Sony, absolutely sucks. I'm not buying the "630 shots with a pair of AA batteries". Maybe that's with the LCD always off and never using the flash or zoom.

[Jason @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:18AM]

I'm not sure why they try to entice people to buy their camera by offering an absurd ISO 4000 setting. Sure it might be nice in an absolute emergency, but usually people who know the value of good ISO performance also know the value of a nice looking photograph. At ISO 4000 your photo is going to look like it was taken with a cell phone.

[tekdroid @ Aug 23rd 2006 12:32PM]

nice of them to upgrade this model with image stabilisation. I wonder how it compares to the Panasonics and Minoltas of this world. Panasonic & Olympus co-developed DSLR tech, so it wouldn't surprise me if these are some of the fruits of their agreement.

I've always liked Olympus cams for the fact they work on any modern OS absolutely driverless (native drag-n-drop), as well as their unique Pixel Mapping feature (as CCDs age, they do develop "stuck" pixels, and this brilliant feature means you don't have to send it back - you simply hit a button and it maps the devective pixel(s)).

[Type-E @ Aug 23rd 2006 12:33PM]

Seems good, but it's missing the hotshoe mount.

[Type-E @ Aug 23rd 2006 12:35PM]

If it can do ISO1600 at full res, I think ISO 3200 should just look as good at half res. ISO4000 is just a bit more than ISO3200

[Type-E @ Aug 23rd 2006 12:46PM]

Also, missing IS/VR/AS/SSS or whatever it should be called.

[Wry Cooter @ Aug 23rd 2006 2:59PM]

Those desperate sorts needing that shot of juniors winning touchdown aren't going to give a diddly about image noise levels.

And theoretically at least, you could use four image elements added up, for a smaller shot,(fifty percent of a 7.1 megapixel yet using the entire ccd for imaging) and catch more photons, ergo, less noise.

[Andreas @ Aug 28th 2006 1:59PM]

I am wondering if the SP-510UZ supports RAW-format.
I walked through the specs but couldn't find a answer.

If it does this might be my next camera.

At the moment I own the mju-810. As mentioned above the high ISO formats mostly result in a lot of noise as I experienced with my mju-810.

Cheers,

Andreas

[Kenneth Webb @ Sep 21st 2006 4:15AM]

In Australia, the retail price (at least where I work) will be $499.

[livatlantis @ Oct 2nd 2006 12:42PM]

Andreas, it does have RAW support (and for what it's worth, built-in editing features). Bought this yesterday, the image stabilisations works pretty well.

[Jaakko �rn @ Jan 22nd 2007 4:16PM]

Hi i am from finland and here that cost about 400€ with batteries and memorycard. It works very good and i have to say makro and supermakro is very good when you take photos to small objectives.