Olympus SP-590UZ Pro Reviews

The Olympus SP-590UZ is a frustrating camera. It's comfortable to hold and relatively intuitive (apart from the annoying lack of auto flash pop-up) with a good mix of automatic scene modes and scope for manual capture. There are also plenty of fun features for more creative capture and you can't quibble with the scope for adding on conversion lenses. It's almost as if the camera has a split personality, though. Whilst it will happily plod along in the daytime, it's a poor performer in low light conditions. Not only does it have serious problems with image preview quality at night or indoors, it is very sluggish with its AF performance. These are issues that unfortunately seriously counteract the SP-590UZ's merits, such as the long zoom and the generous shutter speed.

A mixed bag. We liked the extreme aspirations of the Olympus SP-590Z but felt it didn’t fully realise that 24x zoom’s potential. Against that is the solid dual-stabilisation setup and the lack of noise in good light.

The SP-590 is a welcomed addition to the "SP" series line, offering the image quality and features one would expect from Olympus, with improved shooting performance.

It is in fact the super mega zoom feature of the Olympus SP-590 UZ that lets us down. It seems Olympus went just one step too far. The specifications are beautiful, 26x zoom and high resolution with many setting options, but in practice the camera does not live up to its expectations. If you expect good quality and all-round photography, you'd better look for a DSLR (for example the Olympus E-450). Although this means you will have to settle for less zoom range, or go through the trouble of taking a second lens along; when it comes to quality, it certainly would be a smarter choice!

The Olympus SP-590 UZ should appeal to a broad spectrum of folks for whom an ultrazoom is the instrument of choice - there's all the auto and scene shooting options any dedicated Point and Shoot user could dream of, as well as the face detection and smile detection features that make great marketing copy.

The Olympus SP-590UZ literally stretches the super-zoom category to new lengths, with a competition-beating 26x zoom lens that incorporates appealingly wide 26mm and incredibly close-up and personal 676mm settings. Having both in one relatively compact camera does literally open up a whole new world of possibilities - this was the camera that I most often reached for during the last couple of weeks of testing.

The Olympus SP-590UZ has a lot to commend it. The price is good, and the overall design is attractive and functional, with very good handling. It performs well and it's low light performance is especially good. However that title-capturing 26x zoom lens is far too big, produces inferior image quality and cannot be used at full zoom without a tripod. Image noise issues are also a problem.

The highest fixed lens zoom falls into our clutches. Can it run with the Nikon Coolpix P90, or does it get lapped?

Aside from a debatably useful 26x zoom lens, there's little that's notable about the Olympus SP-590 UZ.