Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Digital Camera Review

Features
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification


Lens extended

Announced in February, the Olympus SZ-10 is part of the Super Zoom range of cameras from Olympus and is available in silver and black with an RRP of £199.99.


Front

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Features

The SZ-10 features a massive 18x optical zoom lens, which is a 35mm equivalent of 28 - 504mm, ideal for shooting both landscapes and close-up sporting events. The camera also has a 14 megapixel sensor and iAuto mode to help take pictures as easily as possible.


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Key Features

Rear

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Handling

The SZ-10 is built from plastic and benefits from rubber grips on the front where you place your right fingers, and one on the back for your thumb. The menus are easy to navigate with most of the picture settings changed via a menu which appears down the right hand side of the screen. Here you can change the flash, focus mode, self-timer, exposure compensation, white-balance, ISO and number of frames taken. The buttons don't present any problems and the dial on the back works as both a D-pad as well as rotating to cycle through menu options.

Olympus haven't provided a CIPA rating for the camera's battery but it was charged before testing and was not needed to be recharged. Focus speed it good as well is start-up time, it is ready to go within a couple of seconds of switching on. In continuous shooting the SZ-10 shoots full sized images at about 0.9fps, switching to High-speed 1 yielded 4.9 fps and High-speed 2 gave 10 fps although the image size is limited to 5 and 3 megapixels respectively.


Battery

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Performance

Whether shooting wide or with the full 18x zoom, the SZ-10 retains a good amount of detail throughout the images although there is a touch of purple fringing on occasion. Colour reproduction is also good and macro photos look fantastic, aided by the minimum focus distance of just 1cm.

Olympus SZ-10 Lens test images

Wide-angle | 1/160 sec | f/9.3 | 5.0 mm | ISO 64 High-Res	Full optical zoom | 1/320 sec | f/4.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 64 High-Res
Digital zoom | 1/320 sec | f/4.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 100 High-Res	Macro | 1/4 sec | f/3.7 | 11.0 mm | ISO 100 High-Res

At ISO 64 there is a touch of noise in places and more so at ISO 100. It becomes steadily worse at ISO 200 and at ISO 400, images produced are starting to lose sharpness. ISO 800 produces soft looking images and at ISO 1600, there is a significant loss of detail and sharpness thanks to noise. ISO 800 and 1600 images are likely to be better for web use rather than large prints.

Olympus SZ-10 ISO test images

ISO 64 | 1/6 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res	ISO 100 | 1/8 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res	ISO 200 | 1/15 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res
ISO 400 | 1/40 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res	ISO 800 | 1/80 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res	ISO 1600 | 1/160 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm High-Res

Even in dull, overcast conditions, the SZ-10 is able to take landscape shots with good colour and sport mode is able to capture the water in the air. Although the subject looks a little red, the camera takes good portraits without any red-eye.

Olympus SZ-10 Scene modes

Landscape | 1/100 sec | f/9.3 | 5.0 mm | ISO 64 High-Res	Landscape with building | 1/100 sec | f/9.3 | 5.0 mm | ISO 64 High-Res
Sport mode | 1/640 sec | f/3.8 | 12.2 mm | ISO 80 High-Res	1/125 sec | f/3.9 | 13.8 mm | ISO 100 High-Res

Below are some images using the full 18x optical zoom lens. The first image was taken using High-speed shooting to capture the batsmens movements. The other images were taken using iAuto mode.

Olympus SZ-10 Sample Photos

High-speed shooting | 1/500 sec | f/13.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 1000 High-Res	Zoom 1 | 1/250 sec | f/4.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 320 High-Res
Zoom 2 | 1/250 sec | f/4.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 100 High-Res	Zoom 3 | 1/250 sec | f/4.4 | 90.0 mm | ISO 160 High-Res

Panoramic | 1/2000 sec | f/9.3 | 5.0 mm | ISO 640

There were no white-balance issues during testing. Under our studio lights the camera coped well with the AWB just having a slight orange cast in the image under the incandescent lights, with the incandescent preset giving the best image. The AWB has worked perfectly under the fluorescent lights, which a magenta cast in the image when using the fluorescent preset.

Olympus SZ-10 White-balance test images

Awb preset - incandescent lighting | 1/10 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 100 High-Res	Incandescent preset - incandescent lighting | 1/10 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 100 High-Res
AWB preset - fluorescent lighting | 1/5 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 100 High-Res	Fluorescent preset - fluorescent lighting | 1/5 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 100 High-Res

There are eight creative digital filters which can be applied during shooting, seven of which can be used during video recording.

Olympus SZ-10 Digital filters

Drawing | 1/80 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 640 High-Res	Fish eye | 1/40 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res	Pin Hole | 1/40 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res	Pop Art | 1/40 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res
Punk | 1/40 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res	Soft focus | 1/30 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res	Sparkle | 1/40 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 250 High-Res	Watercolour | 1/80 sec | f/3.3 | 6.8 mm | ISO 640 High-Res

Video Mode

The Olympus SZ-10 shoots videos at 720p HD but doesn't allow the use of optical zoom during recording, when sound recording is also active, which is a shame, but you can use digital zoom. The magic filters available during video recording are Pop Art, Pin Hole, Fish Eye, Drawing, Soft Focus, Punk and Watercolour.

Value For Money

The Olympus SZ-10 is available for around £148.99. Other cameras with an 18x optical zoom lens are the Nikon Coolpix S9100 (12.1 megapixels, £224.99), Fujifilm FinePix S2950 (14 megapixels, £136.99) and the Samsung WB700 (14.2 megapixels, £170.00) The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 (14.1 megapixel, £248.99) and Leica V-Lux 30 (14.1 megapixels, £549.99) both have 16x optical zoom but cost more, especially the Leica.

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Verdict

Using the SZ-10 is a good experience, with easy to use menus and rubber grips to help hold the camera steady. Image quality is good, although noise does significantly effect images after ISO 400, but the 10 fps shooting means you can take some pleasing pictures of fast moving objects, even though image size is limited to 3 megapixels. If you like taking close-up pictures, you won't be disappointed as Super Macro mode means you can shoot from just 1cm away. You can shoot 720p HD videos, with the use of Magic Filters, but it is frustrating to have a camera with so much zoom, yet it isn't available for movie recording when you are also recording sound.

The Olympus SZ-10 is an easy to use camera, with good image quality, at a very reasonable price.

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Pros

Rubber grips on front and back
Minimum focus distance of just 1cm
High-speed shooting at 10 fps
Good detail in images

Olympus SZ-10 Super Zoom Cons

Lots of noise in images after ISO 400
No optical zoom with sound in videos

FEATURES
HANDLING
PERFORMANCE
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL

Olympus SZ-10 Specifications

Manufacturer	Olympus
Lens
	Max Aperture	f/3.1 - f/4.4
	35mm equivalent	28mm - 504mm
	Optical Zoom	18x
Image Sensor
	CCD pixels	14Mp (Megapixels)
	Pixels (W)	4288
	Pixels (H)	3216
	Sensor Type	Back-lit CMOS (B.S.I.)
	Sensor Size	1/2.3 inch
	Sensor Size (width)	6.16mm
	Sensor Size (height)	4.62mm
	Aspect Ratio	4:3 16:9
LCD Monitor
	LCD Monitor	3in
	Screen resolution	460,000 dots
	Touch Screen	No
Focusing
	Min Focus	1cm
	Focusing modes	Autofocus Spot Face Detection AF Tracking
Exposure Control
	Shutter speeds shortest	1/2000sec
	Shutter speeds longest	4sec
	Exp modes	Program Scene modes
	Metering	Centre-weighted Multi Pattern Spot
	ISO sensitivity	80 - 3200
	White balance	Auto Outdoors/Daylight Cloudy Incandescent Fluorescent
	Exposure Comp	+/-2
Shooting Options
	Continuous shooting	10fps
Video
	Movie mode	Yes
	Video Resolution	1280x720 720p 640x480 VGA
	Video FPS	No Data
	Stereo Sound	No
	Optical Zoom with Video	No
Other Features
	Image Stabilisation	Yes
Interface
	HDMI	Yes
	USB	USB 2
	Wi-Fi	No
Storage
	Card Type	SD SDHC SDXC
	File Type	JPG
Power Source
	Battery Type	LI-50B
	CIPA Rating	0
Box Contents
	Box Contents	LI-50B Lithium-Ion Battery, F-2AC AC Adapter, CB-USB6 USB Cable, CB-AVC3 Audio/Video cable, Handstrap, Instruction Manual, World Wide Warranty Card, Image Management Software
Dimensions
	Weight	215g
	Width	105.9mm
	Height	67.3mm
	Depth	37.9mm

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