Olympus SZ-20 Pro Reviews

Ultimately whilst the Olympus SZ-20 gets an above average from us, unless you need a travel zoom and you're on a particularly tight budget it falls short of being unequivocally recommended simply because there are better options for a few pounds more.

The Olympus SZ-20 isn’t a bad camera by a long chalk, but apart from a noise-free performance at upper ISO settings and fun effects achievable with the Magic Filters, it’s distinctly average. The price seemingly reflects that and if the 12.5x reach here isn’t enough, look to the 24x Olympus SZ-30.

The SZ-20 is an accessible camera that delivers exactly what an enthusiast photographer needs with a handful of exciting attributes thrown in, including: full HD video capture, eight creative filters, Smart Panorama and 3D mode.The camera fails to present detailed definition in several of the filter and special modes, which can make composition tricky. Elsewhere we were disappointed by the battery performance and high-speed continuous shooting results.

The Olympus SZ-20 is an appealing camera that is capable of producing some very good images, with full HD video, 3D shooting, and a number of fun and easy to use controls thanks to the built in help button. There are a few minor negatives to be aware of, but I can see people enjoying this camera, and enjoyed using the camera.

On paper undeniably the SZ-20 looks like a good option, packing in a usefully broad if not quite class leading focal range, high resolution stills, plus Full HD video, fun Magic Filters and 3D shooting capability. But in practice it falls short of what it could be.

Like the rest of its super zoom/travel zoom ilk, the SZ-20 wouldn’t claim to be a camera for the photo enthusiast - look to the Olympus XZ-1 for that. It does the job of providing those trading up from a regular 3x or 5x compact with a more expansive focal range, enabling the switch from wideangle landscape shots to close up candids in a matter of seconds, and does it for a reasonable price. Apart from our nit picking quibbles over image quality and the annoyance at the fiddly nature of the back plate scroll wheel used for making selections, the SZ-20 isn’t a bad effort, even if it’s a bit of an uninspiring one. For our money the Nikon Coolpix S9100 is a better all rounder, as long as you’re not bothered about 3D. If the 12.5x optical zoom here isn’t enough for your needs, look to the equally new SZ-30 model, also from Olympus. We’ve yet to test it, but on paper it fields a veritable whopper at 24x, but with inevitable price hike to match.

The Olympus SZ-20 is a glossy, well-featured 16MP super-zoom with good picture quality, Full HD movies and encouraging bias towards low-light photography - but its control layout is disappointing, and it's heavily overshadowed by its big sister, the SZ-30MR.