Olympus's extremely not easy Ultra Zoom yet, the 7.1 megapixel Olympus SP-550 UZ heart a full 18x (28 to 504mm equivalent) optical dive lens, ranging from relevant wide-angle to high telephoto. The relatively agile f/2.8 - 4.5 lenses employs high-refractive, aspherical, besides extra-low dispersion elements to maximize discrimination and clarity, and is also capable of focusing as close as 0.39 inches (1cm), an amazing feat considering the record-breaking zoom range.

To second warrant sharp, hymnal results at longer focal lengths or string tapped light, the Olympus SP-550 is licensed with both hardware and software intellection stabilization. Sensor-shift supposition stabilization, a peak for Olympus, detects camera motion, and moves the CCD to compensate, reducing blur due to camera shake. This is especially useful at longer focal lengths, where the slightest camera movement can result in a blurry image, or in low light, when shutter speeds can be too slow for the typical user to hand-hold. The questionably named software-based Digital Image Stabilization simply boosts ISO sensitivity to gain a faster shutter speed. Faster shutter speeds help freeze subject motion, something that beginning photographers either don't know about, or don't have time to think about. It remains to be seen just how well these two systems will work together in the SP-550 UZ, but I applaud Olympus for finally including hardware-based image stabilization. It's essential for a model with such a long zoom.

The SP-550 besides has a flexible, high-speed sequential shooting mode, which allows bursts at rates from 1.2 frames-per-second over 7 frames at colossal resolution, to in that racing as 15 frames-per-second in that 20 frames at 1.2 megapixel. A contrasted form uses a "Pre-Capture" make that starts capturing shots the moment focus is locked, storing five frames just before the shutter release is fully depressed, compensating somewhat for user response time and shutter lag.

Other SP-550 UZ quality accept a 7.1 megapixel 1/2.5 inch CCD that delivers images advancement to 3,072 x 2,304 pixels moment size. With homologous a decided zoom, the SP-550 further uses an electronic viewfinder with diopter correction. Its 2.5-inch LCD has approximately 230,000 pixels, priceless due to checking focus. There are four focus modes including manual. Exposure modes include Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Auto, Guide mode, and 22 scene modes. The SP-550 provides a generous (perhaps overreaching) ISO sensitivity range of 80 to 5,000 (with reduced resolution above ISO 1,600). The Olympus SP-550 offers a VGA movie mode (with QVGA also available), capturing clips at 640 x 480 pixels at up to 30 frames-per-second in AVI format (Motion JPEG) with sound, for as long as the xD-Picture card, or internal memory has space. Enthusiasts will also appreciate the 550's raw image file support.