Compact

When it was unveiled in February, Olympus's SP-800UZ was one of only two digicams with a 30x zoom lens. Claiming the advantage of being the world's smallest in this category, the SP-800UZ boasts a 14-megapixel sensor and was released with a ‘sister' model, the SP-600 UZ which sports a 15x zoom lens and 12-megapixel resolution.

When the SP-800 UZ was announced its only rival was the Fujifilm FinePix HS10, which was announced on the same day. As this review is being completed in late July, we can't say whether other cameras with such an extended zoom range will appear later in the year. But for readers interested in buying a current digicam with a 30x optical zoom lens we've prepared the following comparison table.

Unusually, Olympus has opted to provide neither a software disk nor a printed instruction manual with either of the new cameras. Instead, both have been loaded into each camera's on-board memory, from which they can be downloaded to a computer. The camera must be connected to the computer via the supplied USB cable and switched on.

If all goes well, you'll be able to locate the manual and software by double-clicking on the camera icon displayed on the desktop. (It won't appear if you've loaded a memory card.) You can then copy the manual and install the software by clicking on the relevant icons. Both open wizard-based screens to simplify the process.

You have to agree to the standard set of conditions before the software will be installed and the installation process takes several minutes. The camera also ‘initialises' during this time.

Build & Ergonomics
The body of the SP-800UZ looks and feels as if it is made from plastic with a low-gloss metallic-looking cladding that provides a veneer of chic. However, there are telltale signs of it being built to a price in the plastic-lined tripod mounting, pull-up flash housing and clip-over lens cap (which has to be tethered to the camera strap). The tether securing the plastic cover on the USB and HDMI port is also rather flimsy.

The front of the camera is dominated by the lens, which covers almost two thirds of the panel. Although the body of the camera is only around 20 mm deep, the lens protrudes almost 60mm, making the whole camera too large to be pocketable. It's also slightly unbalanced.

Above the optical axis of the lens is the housing for a narrow, pop-up flash tube that is lifted manually by grabbing two knobs on either side of the head. To switch the flash off, the head is pushed down again.


Front view of the SP-800UZ showing the lens, flash and grip. (Source: Olympus.)

The grip is narrow and approximately 25mm deep. Its textured rubber-like coating improves both comfort and security. The top of the grip houses the shutter button and zoom lever, both of which are large enough for easy operation. An LED lamp, which doubles as an AF illuminator and self-timer indicator sits between the grip and the lens.

The rear panel looks a lot like a recent mju model. Most it is covered by the LCD monitor, which has a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio that capitalises on the camera's 720p HD video recording capabilities. Unfortunately, its resolution is disappointingly low at 230,000 dots. A prominent red button near the top corner accesses direct movie recording, a new feature in the latest models. Below it lies an indicator LED that glows while the battery is being charged.


Rear view of the SP-800UZ. (Source: Olympus.)

Just beneath the indicator lamp is a very basic control panel with buttons for switching between shooting and playback modes, a menu button and a camera/menu guide button. Replacing the normal arrow pad is a wheel controller with a central OK button. It accesses the Info and delete sub-menus and is used to navigate the main menu.


Top view of the SP-800UZ. (Source: Olympus.)

Strap eyes protrude above each end of the top panel as part of what appears to be a metal strip that joins the front and back sections of the camera. Unlike the SP-590 UZ, the SP-800 UZ has no mode dial. Aside from the shutter button and zoom lever on the grip, the only other button on the top panel is the on/off power button. Everything else must be accessed via the camera's menu.

While this could be welcomed by point-and-shoot, auto-everything photographers, essentially it's a retrograde step that will be frustrating for anyone who wants to adjust camera settings. Without PASM shooting modes this camera isn't designed for such users and serious enthusiasts will be deterred by the absence of raw file capture.

As well as lacking a mode dial, there are no direct buttons for changing ISO, white balance, focusing, flash or drive modes. All must be adjusted by clicking on the Menu button. Pressing the up edge of the wheel controller toggles through the display options. In shooting mode they include no data, basic data plus a list of functions along the right side of the screen and data, functions plus a grid overlay and tiny brightness histogram. In playback mode you get the thumbnail image plus shooting data and a brightness histogram.

Shooting Modes and Controls
While beginners may think the SP-800 UZ has plenty of controls - and certainly most of the ones they require - enthusiasts seeking P, A, S and M shooting modes will be disappointed and the SP-600 UZ is strictly JPEG only. Olympus has never (in our opinion) mastered the craft of designing photographer-friendly user interfaces for their cameras and the one on the SP-800 UZ is no exception.

Pressing the menu button displays a line of icons ranged vertically down the right side of the monitor screen. If these are the only controls you will ever use, locating settings and engaging them is relatively straightforward and requires just a few button presses.

The main shooting menu contains five shooting modes: P, iAuto, Scene, Magic Filters, Panorama and Beauty. The P mode provides program AE metering and is the only one in which you can adjust ISO and drive settings.

The menu display in the P shooting mode.


Adjusting the self-timer in the P mode.

The only functions that can be adjusted in the iAuto mode are the flash and self-timer, as shown below.


Adjustable functions in the iAuto mode are shown on the right side of the monitor.

White balance is selectable in the Scene, Magic Filters Panorama and Beauty modes. The Scene mode sub-menu contains 17 pre-sets, some of which (notably the Bird Watching mode) relate to the long zoom lens.

Scene pre-sets are selected via the Scene sub-menu.

There are a couple of multiple-exposure modes: Multi Fireworks and Multi-Exposure. The first allows users to take two shots in order to overlay a second burst of fireworks on a background shot. Both exposures are made with the same camera settings. The Multi-Exposure mode lets you change exposure settings after the first shot but is otherwise the same as Multi Fireworks.

The Beauty mode is designed for portraiture and integrates with the camera's Face Detection function, which selects human faces for processing. This involves smoothing out skin texture and suppressing blemishes. However, it takes forever to process shots and the camera locks while this happens. In addition, you can't control the degree to which processing is applied and the results aren't always attractive. Fortunately, the camera saves both editing and unedited versions of the shot so you're not stuck with the latter.

The Soft Background Shot mode enables users to blur out backgrounds in portraits and close-ups. There are six ‘frames' to choose from for setting up the subject as well as an Auto setting that can ‘recognise' different subjects and apply the appropriate framing. Once the shot has been taken, the camera processes the image to blur areas outside of the frame.

The Panorama mode lets users shoot three-frame panoramas. Three settings are provided: Auto, which releases the shutter automatically as you move the camera and combines the shots in the camera; Manual, where the photographer decides when the shutter is released but the frames are combined in the camera and PC, which enables the frames to be combined with the supplied [ib] software.


The Panorama mode.

The SP-800UZ has also ‘borrowed' some of the ‘Art Filters' from Olympus's interchangeable-lens cameras. Four different in-camera effects are provided: Pop Art, Pinhole, Fisheye and Drawing.

The Magic mode enables users to apply one of four Art Filter effects.

The Pop Art filter boost saturation and contrast, while the Pin Hole filter darkens the edges of shots to replicate the effect of a pinhole camera. The fish-eye filter applies strong rectilinear distortion to the edges of the frame and magnifies the central area, simulating the effect of a fish-eye lens - without expanding the field of view. The Drawing filter converts continuous-tone images into outline drawings.

The other icons are largely self-explanatory and cover the flash modes, close-up and Super Macro settings, self-timer, exposure compensation, white balance, ISO and drive modes. Unusually, Olympus provides eight drive mode settings, including five burst modes at various speeds plus a bracketing mode and time lapse. Time lapse intervals can be set between one and 99 minutes and up to 99 shots can be captured in a sequence using most of the available shooting modes.

The standard continuous mode records 14M Fine frames at intervals of 0.8 seconds, while the other modes reduce resolution progressively as faster frame rates are engaged. For the fastest frame rate (15.2 frames/second), image size is reduced to 1600 x 1200 pixels.

If you want to adjust any other function you must toggle down to the ‘other options' icon at the bottom of the menu where you'll find seven pages of sub-menus. They allow you to adjust things like image size and compression level for stills and movie clips, shadow adjust compensation, AF and metering patterns and switch the digital zoom on and off. Settings for the image stabiliser, bracketing, noise reduction, time lapse, and playback are also found here, along with three pages of setup tools.

Unfortunately, changing anything in these pages requires too many button presses to make them readily usable. And putting the image size and quality settings and frequently adjusted functions like exposure compensation and AF and metering patterns in these sub-menus will deter many users from changing them, even though a few potentially useful functions are buried in these pages.

Shadow Adjustment is a new addition that enables users to compensate for extreme contrast that underexposes shadow areas so they're lacking in detail. Three settings are provided: Auto, off and on. It works best when the exposure compensation is set to -0.3 or -0.7EV to preserve details in the highlight areas. Unfortunately, you can't fine-tune settings to prevent shadow noise.

The AF mode sub-menu contains four settings: Face/iESP, Spot, AF tracking and Area. While most of these settings are self-explanatory, the AF tracking is new and designed to automatically track fast-moving and unpredictable subjects and continuously adjusts the focus and brightness. It works reasonably well, given the constraints of the camera's contrast-based AF system - but isn't lightning fast.

You can attach sound bites to still images by selecting the recording mode (microphone icon) on page 2 of the shooting menu. Recording starts approximately four seconds after the shot is taken and runs for four seconds. It's not available in the continuous capture modes.

Sensor and Image Processing
The sensor in the SP-800 UZ is a 14.7-megapixel CCD chip that measures approximately 6.13 x 4.60 mm and delivers 14-megapixel image files at top resolution. It's coupled to a TruePic III Image Processor, which was originally developed by Olympus for its DSLR cameras.

Typically for a camera designed primarily for snapshooters, the SP-800 UZ is JPEG format (Exif 2.21) only for stills photography. The table below shows typical still image sizes plus the number of shots that can be stored in the 2GB on-board memory in the camera.

Video
Support for HD video recording is the main feature that distinguishes the new Olympus super-zooms from the SP-590UZ they replace. The maximum resolution is 1280 x 720 pixels. Scanning is progressive, with the popular MPEG-4 format and AVC/H.264 codec being used.

Movie capture is triggered by pressing the Movie button on the rear panel. This lights up the movie icon in the bottom left corner of the monitor. Soundtracks are recorded by default but audio recording can be turned off in the Movie sub-menu. You can use both optical and digital zoom while shooting video clips - but only for silent movies. When the camera is set to record soundtracks, only the digital zoom is available.

Sub-menu 2 in the Movie mode includes a Fulltime AF setting, which uses the camera's AF tracking function and can be switched on to help keep track of moving subjects while video is recorded. This mode dramatically improves the amount of sharply focused clips the camera records.

Some of the shooting modes (Magic filters, panorama and Beauty mode) are blocked when movie recording is initiated. The camera defaults to the P mode if these modes have been selected. The table below indicates how much video can be stored in the camera's 2GB internal memory for each image size and quality setting.

To play back HD video clips directly on an HD TV set you'll require an HDMI cable (not supplied). Cables can be purchased for around $50 from most consumer electronics stores. The HDMI Control setting on page 3 of the setup sub-menu gives you the option of controlling playback via the camera's menu system or the TV set's remote control.

Playback and Software
The SP-800 UZ provides a standard suite of playback functions with single, and slideshow playback, the latter with or without background music. The camera comes with five pre-loaded music clips that are titled ‘Cosmic', ‘Breeze', ‘Mellow', ‘Dreamy' and ‘Urban'. They sound a bit tinny and are typical of what you'd expect from cameras of this type.

Three transition effects are also provided: standard, fade and zoom. Pressing the horizontal sides on the arrow allows you to move forward and backward through the shots recorded frame by frame.

The Photo Surfing setting in the playback menu lets you browse pictures by date, scene, person, place or image collection. Each time an image is selected for playback, pressing the vertical edges of the arrow pad displays related images as thumbnails along the lower edge of the monitor screen. Pressing the OK button selects shots for viewing at full screen size.

Other playback options include viewing shots by Event or Collection, both of which require the images to be tagged accordingly in a computer beforehand using the supplied [ib] software. You can also apply Beauty Fix correction to shots in playback mode and this setting provides the option of selecting ‘Clear Skin', ‘Sparkle Eye' or ‘Dramatic Eye' adjustments separately. Post-capture red-eye fix is also provided.

Images can be cropped or resized to VGA or QVGA resolution and the Colour Edit sub-menu lets you convert shots to B&W, sepia, high saturation or low saturation versions, which are saved separately from the original shots. The shadow adjustment tool is also available in playback mode - but with no facilities for fine-tuning adjustments.

 Other playback settings include single and multi-shot erasure. Individual images can be protected, rotated or DPOF tagged for automated printing. Sound bites can also be added in play mode.

We've covered the Olympus [ib] software extensively in our review of the Olympus Pen E-PL1.

Performance
Pictures shot with the review camera showed most of the characteristics expected of a high-resolution, small-sensor digicam. Although bright and colourful, they frequently suffered from blown-out highlights and blocked up shadows were common, even in shots where the Shadow Adjustment processing was applied. Out-of-the-camera images were also slightly soft and required post-capture sharpening.

The autofocusing system was patchy in responsiveness and accuracy, as shown in some of the sample images below. In bright lighting and with shorter focal lengths, focusing was mostly fast and accurate. However, when zoomed in to the full tele position, it was slow and the shutter would often fire without the subject being sharp - even in bright sunlight. Dim and low-contrast lighting exacerbated the problem.

The tracking AF system was even more problematic and often failed to keep track of moving subjects. In fact, with full tele zoom, we obtained no hand-held shots of moving subjects that could be considered acceptably sharp out of 15 sample images taken at the 147mm focal length. All video clips shot at 147mm were also unsharp (although it was impossible to confirm this until they were played back on a computer monitor because of the low resolution of the camera's screen).

The built-in stabilisation system appeared to make little difference to the number of sharp images we obtained at high zoom ratios. However, it may have been beneficial at shorter focal length settings, although due to the high levels of automation, this was difficult to test.

Noise was an ever-present issue at sensitivity settings of ISO 400 and above. Imatest confirmed our subjective evaluations and showed a progressive reduction in resolution as sensitivity was increased. The graph below shows the results of our tests. (The sharp drop in resolution at ISO 3200 is at least partly caused by the camera down-sizing the image to 2560 x 1920 pixels).

Resolution was well below expectations for a 14-megapixel camera in our Imatest tests. Although we don't have space in our testing set-up to cover the camera's entire zoom range, we found a steep decline in the already low resolution from about 25mm onwards and, on the basis of test shots, can only assume this decline continues out to the 147mm focal length. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.



Lateral chromatic aberration ranged between low and moderate, coming close to the serious point at longer focal lengths. The presence of coloured fringing in test shots confirmed the Imatest measurements shown in the graph below. (Note: the red line separates negligible from low, CA, while the green line marks the border between low and moderate CA and the pink line indicates the beginning of serious chromatic aberration.)

The only way to test the camera's long-exposure capabilities was to use the Night Scene mode, which blocks ISO adjustments but enables four-second exposure times. We also set the camera to the P mode for high-ISO tests with a shutter speed of 1/2 second.

 In both cases, the results showed strong colour shifts and noise could be seen at ISO 400. At ISO 3200, the image was very noise-affected and sharpness had deteriorated noticeably. Flash shots were much less noise-affected but some softening was noticeable from about ISO 400 on and shots taken at ISO 3200 were slightly fuzzy looking. However, exposures were evenly balanced throughout the camera's ISO range.

Auto white balance performance was similar to many digicams we've tested. The review camera failed to totally remove the colour cast from incandescent lighting but came quite close with fluorescent lighting. Manual measurement is not available and all the pre-sets except the Fluorescent 1 (daylight) setting were noticeably off the mark.

Close-up capabilities were generally good, particularly with the super-macro setting, which locks the focal length at 15.2mm. The normal macro mode works best at the 4.9mm focal length, although the small sensor means background details can overwhelm the main subject. Zooming in close-up mode was problematic and the AF system often failed to find focus. Framing hand-held shots at full tele zoom was difficult with low ISO settings. (We feel a tripod should be used in all but the brightest lighting.)

The Bird Watching Scene mode, which is a new addition in this camera, was hampered by the camera's poor autofocusing at long focal lengths. Images are reduced to 2560 x 1920 pixels in this mode and sensitivity was fixed at ISO 200, which didn't help. But we weren't able to get close enough to even common birds that were accustomed to people to produce acceptable pictures. And it didn't prevent shots from being rendered unsharp most of the time.

Digital zoom shots were soft and artefact-affected. We believe this function should only be used when other options aren't possible. The lens was also quite flare-prone, and no lens hood is supplied to minimise the problem. Flare occurred in backlit shots when the sun was just outside the frame. The Shadow Adjust technology produced some acceptable images when backlighting was less severe but was unable to correct strong contre-jour lighting.

Video quality was pretty ordinary, despite the camera's ability to record HD clips at 720p resolution. We couldn't see much quality difference between the Fine and Normal settings in HD mode and, in both cases, zooming in to the 147mm focal length resulted in soft, out-of-focus clips.

Swapping to VGA resolution produced an obvious deterioration in quality. QVGA clips were even worse. In each case, the soundtracks were uninspiring, although not unacceptably bad.

Response times for the review camera were about average for a modern digicam. We measured an average capture lag of 0.25 seconds, which reduced to just under 0.1 seconds with pre-focusing. Shot-to-shot intervals averaged 2.4 seconds without flash or 4.4 seconds with. It took 4.0 seconds on average to process each Large/Fine JPEG file.

In the normal continuous shooting mode, the review camera was able to capture 10 Large/Fine JPEGs in 7.8 seconds. It took 7.3 seconds to process this burst. With the Hi-1 setting, a burst of 10 frames at 2560 x 1920 pixels was recorded in 1.2 seconds. It took 6.2 seconds to process this burst.

The Hi-2 and Hi-3 continuous modes capture images at 2048 x 1536 pixels and 1600 x 1200 pixels respectively, the former at approximately 10 frames/second and the latter recording 20 frames in 1.3 seconds. Processing times for each burst were around six seconds.

Although the rechargeable lithium-ion battery supplied with the camera is only rated for 200 frames, no low battery warning was displayed on the LCD monitor at the end of our tests, which involved 193 single images and eight video clips. This suggests power consumption is quite conservative for a present-day digicam.

Buy this camera if:
- You're looking for a low-priced superzoom digicam that can record 720p HD video clips.
- You want plenty of scene pre-sets for shooting both video and still pictures.
- You'd like to take ultra-close-up photographs of small subjects.

Don't buy this camera if:
- You demand consistent high image quality for stills and video clips.
- You want A, S and M shooting modes.
- You want high burst capacity at high resolution.
- You require fast and accurate autofocusing.

IMATEST GRAPHS

SAMPLE IMAGES


Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.

Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.

4.9mm focal length, ISO 50, 1/320 second at f/5.7.

147mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/100 second at f/5.6.

Digital zoom; 147mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/400 second at f/5.6.

Side-by-side examples of AF problems with the 29.2mm focal length setting; ISO 400, 1/25 second at f/4.1.

Close-up with the super-macro mode: 15.2mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/125 second at f/5.6.

Close-up of the same subject with the normal macro mode showing intrusive background:  4.9mm focal length; ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/5.7.

A 4-second exposure in Night Scene mode: ISO 400, 5.8mm focal length at f/3.


A 1/2-second exposure, ISO 3200, 5.8mm focal length at f/3.

Flash exposure at ISO 100; 29.2mm focal length, 1/160 second at f/4.1.

Flash exposure at ISO 400; 29.2mm focal length, 1/160 second at f/4.1.

Flash exposure at ISO 3200; 29.2mm focal length, 1/160 second at f/4.1.

Subject photographed in bright sunlight; 4.9mm focal length, ISO 50, 1/320 second at f/5.7.

100% crop from the above image showing coloured fringing along the edges of high contrast.

Backlit subject photographed with Shadow Adjust set to Auto; 51.5mm focal length, 1/260 second at f/6; ISO 100.

Flare produced by strong backlighting; 4.9mm focal length, ISO 50, 1/100 second at f/5.7.

Bird Watching mode; 147mm focal length, ISO 200, 1/250 second at f/5.6.

Still frame from 720p HD video clip mid-range focal length.

Still frame from 720p HD video clip with the lens zoomed in to the 147mm focal length showing autofocus failure.

Still frame from VGA video clip.

Still frame from QVGA video clip.

Sensor:  6.13 x 4.60 mm CCD sensor with 14.7 million photosites (14 megapixels effective)
Lens:  Olympus 4.9-147mm f/2.8-5.6 zoom (28-840mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 30x optical, up to 5x digital
Image formats: Stills - JPEG (Exif 2.21); Movies - MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
Image Sizes: Stills - 14M (4288 x 3216), 8M (3264 x 2448), 5M (2560 x 1920), 2M (1600 x 1200), 1M (1280 x 960), VGA (640 x 480), 16:9(1920 x 1080); Movies - 1280 x 720p, VGA, QVGA
Shutter speed range: 1/2 to 1/2000 seconds (up to 4 sec. in Night Scene mode )
Self-timer: 2 or 12 seconds delay
Image Stabilisation:  Dual Shakeproof CCD-shift
Exposure Compensation: +/- 2 EV in 1/3 EV steps
Focus system/range: TTL iESP auto focus with contrast detection; range 10 cm to infinity; Super Macro to 1 cm
Exposure metering/control: iESP (multi), Centre-weighted and Spot metering
Shooting modes: iAuto, Program AE, Beauty, Panorama, Magic Filter, Scene (Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Indoor, Candle, Sunset, Fireworks, Multiple Fireworks, Multiple Exposure, Cuisine, Documents, Beach & Snow, Bird Watching, Soft Background Shot, Pet)
ISO range: Auto, ISO 64-3200
White balance: Auto, Overcast, Sunlight, Tungsten, Fluorescent (x3)
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, Red-eye reduction, Fill-in, Fill-in+Red eye reduction, Slow synchro, Off;  range - to 10.2 metres (wide) or 5.1 metres (tele)
Sequence shooting:  0.8 frames/second at full resolution; max. 15.2 frames/second at 2M size
Storage Media: 2GB internal memory plus SD/SDHC expansion slot
Viewfinder: No
LCD monitor: 3-inch TFT LCD with 230,000 dots
Power supply:  LI-50B rechargeable lithium-ion battery; CIPA  rated for 200 shots/charge
Dimensions (wxhxd): 107.3 x 73.4 x 84.7 mm
Weight: 418 grams