I switched to this camera from a Canon A610 that died on me. The first thing I noticed with this camera is that the picture quality on my $200 Canon was better or equal than this $400 camera. The dynamic range is terrible, with skies often washed out to white. Like many "super-zoom" cameras competing on specs, it makes up for noise and dynamic range limitations in its small CCD by over-processing, and the images show signs of heavy noise reduction filtering, washing out details. Granted, this isn't a DSLR, but this isn't a cheap camera, either. It appears that they really pushed the boundaries of the CCD to get 8 MP, and used too small a CCD for this resolution.

One thing I will add, after doing more research, is that this problem is common to some extent or another to all recent cameras in this market segment, such as the Canon S5. They are pushing the pixel counts so high, and the zoom ranges so far, that optical quality is suffering as a result.

Another issue I found is that the autofocus algorithm is rather slow, especially at long focal lengths, and it often has difficulty with any scene movement. Worse, it will sometimes tell you it focused successfuly when it didn't. Part of this is the zoom, I'm sure, but even at Canon's autofocus performs far better. My experience in this regard is backed up by some very in-depth reviews on dpreview.com.

I'm sorry to offend the Olympus fanboys around here who don't appear to enjoy the truth, but Olympus engineers can't violate the laws of solid state physics, and smaller pixels means less photoelectron capacity, and that means less dynamic range. Smaller pixels also means less signal to noise, and it shows. The fact of the matter is that they have pushed the pixel count too far for the size of the CCD, and you will get better images from a camera with fewer pixels, ironically. I have nothing against Olympus, or I wouldn't have purchased this. Glowing, breathless reviews by people who are so inexperienced they are amazed at mediocrity aren't useful.

On the bright side, the build quality is supurb. Much better than the Canon S5, which I initially considered. The camera has a nice heft and a very solid feel in the hand. The materials are high quality all over, the one exception being a cheap and annoying rubber cover on the USB port.

Another high point is the zoom and image stabilization. The range is exceptional, and essentially gives you everything from a wide-angle to a medium telephoto. Unfortunately, the cost of this is a lens that does not perform well at the extremes: at wide-angle its highly distorting, and at telephoto lengths there is significant chromatic aberration (color fringing) off center.

In summary, I'd say Olympus put way too much effort into specmanship, and less into making the right engineering decisions. They clearly wanted to have 18x and 8MP printed on the box, and considered image quality a secondary concern. This may be endemic to all the brands of super-zoom cameras, but it doesn't change the fact that you don't get your money's worth where it counts with this camera: image quality. This is a huge shame, because in most every other aspect this is the nicest camera I've ever used.

My advice: if you need the resolution afforded by 8 MP, you need to just suck it up and buy an SLR. Only they have large enough CCDs to handle such resolutions adequately, and this applies to all brands, not just Olympus. Otherwise, just get a 5 MP camera. The images will be just as good, if not better, and you'll save a lot of money.

Wider is BETTER!!! I couldn't be happier with another camera... GO OLYMPUS!!! :) Tak!

First let me share that I purchased this camera because of the recomendation of a local professional protographer and haven't been sorry. The manual controls are excellent and the auto features the most impressive I've seen on cameras running many times its price. For example: face detection and smile detection works well, I love the manually aimed focus on a single user directed point in the viewing field, while remaining in auto focus mode. Through glass mode is of questionable value and works poorly as expected. The true optical zoom outclasses everything else right now although I expect Canon to quickly match or slightly exceed the 18 times zoom.

All this technology comes at a price though and it is not in the price tag you take the hit, but in the fuction. If you are looking for a point and shot camera for quick shots of the family or friends you are barking up the wrong tree! There is a LONG delay for the auto range,focus and other features that make this camera so special to work so stop action - spur of the moment shots are not going to happen in full auto. In manual focus the time from off to open shutter cycle and completed photo is impressively fast, but you have to know how to change from full auto and be competent at range focusing. This is a trade off for the full auto - do everything modes. There are faster stop action modes, but again there is a trade off of time for auto focus, as this setting is about shuitter speed. The the burst quality is quite degraded to the point that a print of any size better than a standard snap shot may be hard.

I am not trying to spoil a great camera for anyone, but this is a camera that by definition and fuction is designed for someone who wants manual modes available to them and plans to use manual modes frequently. It's placement in the point and shoot catagory is unfortunate because for many laymen - it will be frustrating rather than rewarding. If you find a regular point and shot digial technically frustrating and want to take only snap shots, let me say it again, this is not a camera for you - there a number of better choices for less money. Like all optical zoom of any length a tripod is required in spite of image stabalization. Also video mode will work best with an H card rather than just the regular XD

For those of you who seek SLR-type manual controls with great optics and a superb auto mode then this camera is nearly impossible to beat.

Biggest improvement over the Olypmus SP-550UZ is the high spead USB cable. Downloads are lightning fast! Frankly I can't really tell the difference in my type of shooting in the .9 extra megspixal upgrade from the 550

A fantastic camera for under 375 dollars purchased through Amazon - who by the way increases the price of this camera during the daytime hours to over 400 and reduces it at night/early am hours - go figure when you want to buy. - Added on 11/8/07: Now that this is not a brand new, just released camera, the price is coming down. Nevertheless I would check at different times to see if you find a better price here at Amazon. It does continue to change.

I've only had this camera for a day, but I thought I'd post an early review since there are none up yet. I was reluctant to buy this camera because it is SO new, and I generally prefer to wait for reviews to be in, but the 560 had so many interesting features I decided to give it a try. So far I'm glad I did. I've only been taking trial snapshots around my house to become famliar with the camera, but they're all coming out beautifully; very sharp, rich colors, no visible noise. Even low-light and high-zoom shots have been surprisingly good. The pre-programmed settings and other features (of which there are many, you should check the porfessional reviews to see them all) are really useful and I think some of them are unique to this camera right now.

The design is great if you don't mind pushing buttons often. I looked at other cameras that had easier access to different settings, but were crowded with buttons. The 560 has much fewer buttons cluttering its surface, but that means more button pushing to get things done. I'd rather do that than have all that clutter on the body, but others might not. It's also small, lightweight and fits nicely in my hands.

I don't really know yet if this deserves 5 stars, so I might revise this after I've had some time to take pictures outdoors and generally use it more. As of now I'm very satisfied all around. I bought it from a reputable online store with good independent reviews for about $380.

I purchased this camera because of the Bright capture technology since I do a lot of pictures of the inside of homes, I also purchased it because it had in camera panorama which is perfect for my virtual tours of homes. However, none of the great features of this camera work when the camera is set to panorama mode. In panorama mode you get black pictures, impossible to edit even in Photoshop. When shooting the shots I set the camera to indoor and proceeded to take the pictures from left to right, of course the first shot had to be the window so when turning the camera to catch the rest of the room it was set for the lighting of the window so the rest of the room was dark.

This camera is also capable of using the flash with each shot, except, when you are in panorama mode. If you point the camera towards a darker section of the room for the first shot, it automatically sets to take that section perfectly, however, when you get to the window you have an atomic bomb going off outside the window. I get great inside shots with this camera as long as I don't use the panorama feature which is the main reason I bought this camera over the Cannon.

Another note, when you take a picture using the viewfinder and not the monitor, the picture is previewed on the monitor and not the viewfinder where you're looking so you have no idea of how the picture came out when using the viewfinder until you download the picture to your computer or preview them on the camera. All of the pictures taken through the view finder look great but the final result is not. Everything I read about the camera sounded perfect for my business, if all of its features worked in panorama mode it would be the ultimate camera. Overall, I am very disappointed in this camera.

I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this camera and purchased one as soon as I could. Disappointed! The professional reviews I read were on-target, however, my experience with the auto-focus and color electronic viewfinder (EVF) were not up to what I was expecting. I currently have a Sony DSC-H2 and a DSC-F717 before that, so I'm comparing the Olympus to my experience with these two cameras. The auto-focus did not have a high level of consistency in focusing properly/sharply. Too many of my pictures were slightly or way-out of focus. With my Sony's, the auto-focus is highly consistent - only an occasional picture is out of focus. This is what I've come to expect with any camera.

The SP-60UZ's color electronic view finder seemed primitive (again, in comparison with the Sony). It looks like a 'cheap TV' picture and not a true representation of the image you are taking. Because of this, it looked like all of my pictures were in-focus, but the resulting image was not. So the EFV was no help in determining if the camera was focused or not. I'm not going to spend a day taking pictures only to find-out afterwards that a high percentage of them are not focus properly.

The images that were in focus looked spectacular so image quality is what they say in the pro reviews.

Anyway, I was hoping for a new 18x super-zoom with great image quality and was disappointed in the camera I received.

This camera makes good pictures and has lots of functions. I purchased it because of the awesome 18X optical zoom. I had a 12X zoom that made wonderful photos and I thought these would be even better. In time my action pics have gotten better. There are so many bells and whistles, it is difficult to make quick shots. It is more camera than I bargained for. I think with practice and study my photography will return to what it was with my previous camera, but there is a lot to learn.

This is an excellent camera, if you are just starting out or if this is an upgrade from a previous digital camera. The price makes this camera worth a serious look, and the quality of the pictures cinch it.

I read all the reviews some good some bad, but it is a new camera so not enough of it is out there yet. I meant to get a professional camera and looked at my options from highly rated Cannon to Kodak who is falling way back from what their reputation used to be. I chose this because of the awesome zoom, ISO capabilities sure there is noise at high levels but test that noise with another camera it's much worse, and Cannon only achieved ISO 1600, Olympus 3200. I love Super-Macro four tenths of an inch, at 8 mp can make an extraordinary picture. This also has the highest rated processor out, true pic III. Modes and time does not reset with batteries out I hate reseting everything after charging batts. Face detection works very well, also smile mode. I also love if you have ever accidently pressed shutter down all the way instead of half way so you get an unfocused picture, it focuses before everyshot. Every little thing adds up to big things for a big camera, to get the "Big Picture" literally. So don't settle for second best, this camera is just as good if not better than most "average SLR's" I say this cause some are unbelievable if you have over 1 thousand dollars.

With only limited use so far, I've been impressed with camera. So far I've only used the auto mode, but have some great close-up/zoom shots of humming birds, pelicans and landscapes etc, and the macro works well too. The zoom is very impressive, especially for a point and shoot. Colour reproduction is good, and the Olympus software helps optimize the colours on pics that seem a little "off". One complaint is indoor, low light pics without flash - tend to blur (fine if using flash). I think once I get used to the manual controls I'll see more versatility.

Overall, I think this is a great camera - an 18x zoom for less than $400 is hard to beat.

I've been using this camera for about a month, inside, outside, and underwater. Having a wide-angle lens built-in is great, and the 18x zoom gives it versatility. The features of this camera a too numerous to mention here, and while many are easily accessed, there are lots of features buried deep in the camera's menus. You'll want to keep the owner's manual handy when using this camera. Some problems - the higher ISO settings (1600, 3200) are very grainy, and the storage of RAW shots takes so long that you can only really use it for posed shots. And file this under "quirks": if you set "fine zoom" to "on", you can't shoot in the camera's highest resolutions, just standard resolution. All-in-all, it's great camera. It's not SLR quallity, but it's not SLR price either, and the underwater housing is about $1000 cheaper than an SLR housing.

Put simply a great camera that consistently produces high-quality pictures. This camera approaches SLR quality.
Good Points:
1. On AUTO setting takes great pictures. The others take some work.
2. Many options for getting the right picture.
3. Great view screen visible in daylight.
4. Two Levels of macro for up close.
5. Shadow correction.
6. Battery life even with the flash is great!
7. Uses AA batteries. I recommend NI-CAD OR NMH for long life.
8. Very comfortable in the hand. Weight not an issue.

Not So Good Points:
1. Not a simple point and shoot. Need to be a mid to high level user.
2. Doesn't remember your personal settings when turned OFF. Have to reset.
3. Requires XD Memory Cards which are more expensive then SD.
4. Has a special adapter plug for USB download to a computer.
5. No off-the-shelf 47MM lens like Skylight, UV, etc. Need to buy an Optek adapter and 58MM lens set (no cap).

I like the 560 uz, but my wife doesn't like the picture quality. I've tried to explain to her that I am trying to take most pictures using the available light. Some pictures I've taken are night pictures with no flash and I am impressed with how much light shows up to make the picture very clear. When I use the flash, the picture has a slight blue tint to it that is why I prefer natural lighting. I brought a monopod to help still the camera and that helps a lot. Some pictures taken at a great distance can use the help of a monopod or tripod since it does get a little blur to it. But if you have plenty of day light(sun), the pictures come out perfect. I myself like the quality of the cameras build even though some pictures aren't of the highest quality, but I am still experimenting. I know this camera will come in handy once my daughters high school softball games start and also the main reason I brought this camera is that I don't want to miss close up shots with the 18x zoom when my daughter graduates. You now how hard it will be to get a close seat and with the poor lighting in auditoriums, I know I will get a fairly decent photo.

I have a lot time with this camera but the image quality could say everything about they. I get photos so clear, very very clear. This is my best upgrate since the SP 500. I purchase this camera because my older camera (the sp510) haven't image stabilization. But this.. is more than i expected. I really love this camera. but not all is good. In auto mode the ISO Level can be SET very high (400-800 automatically) and this provocate blurry photo. The image stabilization dual really work very well. The auto-focus may be slowly and somethings and the objective its not clear as possible you want. for elsewhere don't have any dissapoint about they. About, the video Quality i really think that's very poor comparate with the quality of the SP 510.

got this item fast, and when it did not work, they had me mail it back free and sent me another one very fast as well...thanks and I love the product !!!!! This item does what it says...it takes wonderful pictures!! I have had a digital camera for years and mine was going bad...so got this one after careful study.... it is an excellent camera..and the guide on the camera is the best!!! it is easy to use and fun to play with...haven't used all the features yet, but I am sure they will be equally sufficient. I am glad I picked this camera!!!

I hate writing negative reviews. I love Olympus cameras, and have used them for years. But now I must write this warning about this particular camera, as a public service:

When I bought the Olympus SP560UZ, I was hoping that it would be the reincarnation of the late lamented C-2100 UZ (which I bitterly regret ever selling). It was supposed to have everything the 2100 had and more. Alas, this camera has a lot wrong with it, at least for the way I intended to use it.

I was tired of lugging my large (and superb!) Oly E-510 (which I use for serious photography) around to informal shoots, and wanted a "party camera," something light and quick that I could hang around my neck when I was knocking back beer and sandwiches at parties! But so far, the 560 has let me down.

First, if you buy it, know that it needs a LOT of light to work well, preferably broad daylight. It does really badly in inside/available light and low-light situations. So:

* Don't go past ISO 200 with this camera. That means you'll have to work with fairly slow shutter speeds. I have taken a lot of pictures with the 560 by now, and I can say that ISO 400 and beyond (and the farther you go, the more it becomes a bad joke) gives you blotchy, noisy pictures, with a high amount of haloing along the edges of objects. This will give you a LOT of extra and time-consuming editing to do in your photoediting app if you have one: Noise Reduction (which doesn't really help that much with pictures from this camera) and Smart Sharpen (which tries to reduce haloing, but doesn't help much either). If you DON'T have any way to edit pix with this camera, I recommend you stay away from it.

* Stay WELL within the falloff range of the flash if the flash is your main light source. As I said, this camera needs a lot of light to make a good picture (on the plus side, the colors are luscious, like the whole Olympus line). If your subject is more than five or six feet away, and you're on a high ISO, you're going to get blotchy noisy pictures.

If you love to take available light pictures as I do, this is not the camera for you. Personally, I'm bitterly disappointed: I had high expectations that weren't met.

* The AF assist lamp works badly. The AF does a lot of hunting in low light situations, and by the time it locks into focus, there's a good chance you'll have lost your shot. In fact if the light is low enough, or the subject too far away, it may not work at all.

* The shutter lag time is unacceptably long. You must learn to get the thing in focus and anticipate the moment.. (This could be me though. I've been using the Olympus E-510 DSLR, am used to getting the shot when I click the shutter.)

The 18X zoom and anti-shake features are fine (in fact they were two of the reasons I bought it in the first place), but they don't make up for the negative aspects of the camera. I give it two stars, because IF you are in well-lighted situations, the camera gives you great pictures. But so do most other cameras.

I purchased an Olympus sp-560 as an upgrade to a previous Olympus purchase. I wanted the face ID and picture burst. The camera is one of the best that I have ever owned.

Olympus SP-560UZ 8MP Digital Camera with Dual Image Stabilized 18x Optical Zoom

A professional photographer in town recommended that I consider this camera seriously. I have had it about a month and am really pleased. I took available light photos at a party; they came out beautiful. Of course, it has so many features that I have not used all of them in a month, but I like being able to move from automatic (point and shoot) to specific situational automatics, to controling aperature or speed or both manually. It matches closely the control I had with my best 35mm film camera. The resolutions available will allow enlargement or even projection. It's not a pocket camera, but not excessively bulky. I endorse this professional's recommendation fully.

I have only used for a couple events, which I used in auto mode. I got great results!

The SP-560 represents a fine progression in Olympus' line of ultra zoom cameras. The three principle changes are the 18x zoom lens, the solid magnesium alloy body and the increase resolution to 8MP. Among the other changes is the ease of switching to a 2 second self timer which makes time exposures a simpler task. Scrolling through the extensive menu is easy and fast and allows a complete array of professional features such as flash exposure compensation. Image stabilization has yet to be throughly tested but my experience has been that stabilization is a gimmick that is a poor substitute for a tripod. A slightly higher flash does reduce red eye and the 18x lens adds inevitable heft and length, but it's negligible when compared to the old film SLRs. As a long time Olympus owner I'm very satifsied with with this new camera.

I am a huge canon Elph fan. I think they are great portable camera, that take great photos. But, the zoom on the canon are virtually non-existant. My son is a swimmer and I could never get action shots of him swimming because I was too far in the stands. I was at a swim meet and the women next to me had the Olympus 550uz. I was watching her zoom across the pool to take pictures of her kids. I was amazed. I asked her about her camera and she started showing me all of the neat functions it can do. I was very impressed. I came home researched and compared various cameras along with going up to a Canon Rebel. By the time I was finished I came to the conclusion that this camera was for me. By far it has the longest zoom out of all of the point and shoot cameras. I have been using my camera for about 2 weeks now. I love it. I took it to a swim meet and the shots I got were amazing. I did the scn #17 rapid shot and am able to take 40 frames simultaniously. It was incredible. I was then able to pick and choose the shots I wanted. The zoom was great. The pictures were not grainy or out of focus. I do have to say it is a lot of camera. It has functions that I will probably never use. It has settings that I am not familiar with, but I like auto, so it works for me.
All in all, I will take this camera for any kind of event that I would need action shots and a zoom. My Canon Elph will go on vacation just for ease of use and carrying size.

This camera is capable of taking great picture, close to professional. But rest assured that it has more computer than my computer. Finding you way around in the setup is not too bad for those used to camers , but could scare a newby. If what you want is a simple point and shoot, I would suggest a lesser camera. If you will take time to learn it, it can take pictures equal to the best.

I bought this camera along with the Olympus Underwater housing so that I could try my hand at underwater photography. Using the preset underwater modes it take pretty good pictures. I would like to add the external flash to bring out more of the colors. Topside photos are excellent as this camera has plenty of features including RAW image format and an 18x optical zoom. I am still learning all of the features and preset modes along with setting up manual modes and saving them to my favorite settings list. It also has a nice panorama feature and with the included software will stich the pictures together for a seemless panoramic shot. As for underwater the lens has a wider anglel than some of the other cameras in the same price range which is important for U/W photography. Overall it is a real nice camera with plenty of features to keep me busy for a while. I would recommend it for both topside and U/W photo-taking.

I've had this camera several days now and so far so good. Right out of the box, the sp-560UZ feels like a quality piece of equipment - my wife (no techie) immediately commented on how great the camera felt and looked.

My first several photo sessions with this camera went well - especially the outdoor ones on the beach and the macro pictures I took of our wonderful California winter flowers. If you have owned an Olympus camera before, the basics of this camera will be familiar and you can take decent photos right away on the auto settings. This camera also allows for plenty of manual adjustments (ISO, Aperture, shutter speed) which I find myself using a lot with this camera. Focus seems to be a bit of a challenge but I am getting the hang of it - any camera in this class takes awhile to get to know and this one is certainly no exception. Also - I think a mono-pod is a good addition to this camera unless you have a really steady hand - on the really long zoom shots it is really hard to keep the camera steady and the mono-pod helps a lot.

Because of that, I would rather wait a few weeks to write this review - However I wanted to let buyers know that when I registered this camera on the Olympus site, I learned that Olympus is adding to this line with an SP 570UZ that will have 20x zoom and even a wider angle lenses. Buyers may want to wait for the newer model - or take advantage of the lower prices on this great little camera.

My only real complaint so far is that the RAW mode requires the use of the included Olympus photo editing software to open and edit the RAW files. In this camera the RAW files are save as a .olf file and not a .raw file. The .olf file can not be opened in Adobe Photoshop and can only be edited in RAW mode in the Olympus RAW editing program. This is ashamed since while the Olympus software is alright, it is in no way as complete as Adobe Camera Raw contained in Photoshop. Get with it Olympus - minus a star for this silly proprietary silliness.

I recently bought this camera for myself and it is exactly what I wanted. It has a nice grip encasing that makes it easy to handle. It also has an amazing 18x zoom feature and takes gorgeous macro pictures. The menu features are very easy to find and understand once you get used to them. I would recommend this camera to anyone that loves to take good pictures, amatuer or experienced photographer.

I had put off buying any digital camera until the resolutions would produce crisp accurate large format prints. (6+ MP). When this quality
became affordable......, the cameras also became too small for my large hands. I was also used to Video zooms of 20X or more and I did not want the cost, size or weight of SLR. This Olympus has everything I wanted at a very reasonable price for high quality abundant automatic and manual settings, high zoom range and fine image reproduction.Olympus SP-560UZ 8MP Digital Camera with Dual Image Stabilized 18x Optical Zoom

i have recently bought it. took a few pictures.
it has really a good design and finish.
do not expect high quality pics from a 1/2.35" sensor.
i could not understand two points yet:
can it record movies for 40sec? and is there
any option to shoot more than once on self timer mode.
or is there any other option?

Olympus SP-570UZ 10MP Digital Camera with 20x OpticalDual Image Stabilized Zoom This canera is teriffic...easy to use...good battery life...great zoom ! Easy to carry...has great camera settings i.e. "SCN" All controls easy to use.excellent menu,etc.

I love this camera. It has the features you need to take great pictures. I've had 3 advanced point and shoot cameras and this one is by far the best. Olympus rocks.

I love this camera. It has sooo many features. I am enjoying learning to use them.

This camera is packed with features that make all my pictures come out great. It even has a help menu that sets the camera up for the situation you are shooting.

Great camera! I've Had Several olympus cameras analog and digital. The 560 ultra zoom does it all. Just finished ordering a high speed memory card for this camera so I can take better action shots. This Camera is well worth the money.

Very disappointed with Olympus. I own 2 other Olympus cameras and was very satisfied, bought this camera and after shooting several hundred exposures was not satisfied with results only about 25 % of shots were in focus. Contacted Olympus with my concerns, but they never returned my inquiry. Sent camera back to 17 Th Photo and purchased a Cannon S5 IS. 17 Th St Photo is an excellent retailer and the Cannon S5 IS, in my opinion is a much better camera.

I've had this camera for about 6 month, and I love it! It's simple to use and the pictures come out great! I highly recommend it.

I've had my SP-59UZ four months. I've taken several hundred photos during this time. The camera takes excellent photos and is very easy to operate. The optical zoom and image stabilizaition are GREAT! I highly recommend this camera.