He either has; a) No idea what he’s talking about, b) Had a deliberately bias agenda c) Had a faulty camera.

But to be continually comparing to a DSLR is a rubbish stance to take, as it is NOT what the camera is tying to be, contrary to his opinion.

- His original beef being that it is difficult to use? – Rubbish! – You want simple, reviewer? Go buy a Casio EX-Z80, or something run-of-the-mill point & shoot like that!!!

Crap & inacurate review.. ONE Star to the Reviewer. FIVE stars for the camera!!

Anything else about the camera? How is it performing? How about the different ISOs? Good? Bad? Why don’t you learn to review cameras before posting?

I took shots of the same outdoor scene using various storage settings, all at 10MP (3648×2736). All were shot at 4.6mm (26mm equiv.), 1/25sec, F5.6. Please find the results below.

JPEG Fine setting: 3.58MB
JPEG Normal setting: 1.72MB
RAW: 14.46MB

I shot JPEG Fine, JPEG Normal, RAW+JPEG Fine, RAW+JPEG Normal. The RAW+JPEG setting simply creates both files, the RAW and JPEG files shot with this setting do not vary from the files created with RAW only or JPEG only settings. Therefore if you want to use RAW+JPEG you can simply add the RAW file size to your prefered JPEG file size and calculate storage.

Using a blank 2GB type-H card the camera reports the following number of available pictures.

JPEG Fine: 410
JPEG Normal: 799
RAW: 138
RAW+JPEG Fine: 118
RAW+JPEG Normal: 118 (yes the camera reported both the same)

Note: the camera is extremely conservative in reporting available space for JPEG. With the camera set to JPEG Fine and 37 photos taken, including 4 RAW, the camera reported 380 available, for a total of 417 including the 4 far larger RAW. I estimate I will get roughly 450-500 photos on the 2GB card in JPEG Fine. Due to the long write time I do not intend to use RAW format except in rare occasions, rather I will use the sequential shot option more frequently.

I will run a test of RAW+JPEG and let you know how much space they take up. I purchased a 2GB type-H card, there are 4GB cards available. The type-M are cheaper and if you are not doing long video shots you probably don’t need the higher speed type-H card.

I’m not HTPC guy, but per the manual downloaded from olympusamerica.com, a 1G card will hold 69 RAW (without sound) or from 205 to 10,660 JPEG (without sound). 2G should hold just over double those numbers (some of system overhead is fixed).

You shouldn’t need highest quality JPEG, since you’ve got the RAW & the JPEG will mostly for quick email/blog/drugstore-prints.

So do the math & pick your own total somewhere in the 100 to 140 range, give a take a few.

I don’t think JB is dishonest, though possibly careless, unknowledgeable, irresponsible, and oblivious to his biases. But isn’t everybody, to some degree?

The Olympus also has 10 megapixels. The Nikon uses 36-bit color and the Olympus uses 24-bit color, so the Olympus stores only 2/3 as much information per pixel as the Nikon (24 divided by 36). Given the same number of pixels, the Olympus files should be two-thirds as large. All other things being equal, the Olympus should be able to store half again as many pictures on a 2GB card as the Nikon — 156 pictures. Of course, “all other things” are not likely to actually be equal given the complexities of high-tech electronics, but it is as good as one can get with guessing.

That is the equivalent of 4 and a 1/3 rolls of 36 exposure film (remember those?). It is not huge but it would likely suffice for most purposes. One would need a second, backup chip, just as one needs a second, backup battery. So maybe this is the camera to get after all.

The reviewer, John Biggs, says this camera is great for outdoors. The owner, HTPC Guy, says this is a terrific camera for indoors too.

The only thing that’s missing is bokeh, and I can probably live without it. I probably don’t have the hands nor the eyes to pick a bird off a distant branch with full aperture so as to put the surrounding branches out of focus so only the bird stands out.

I have a Nikon D200 which is a very fancy and very large and heavy DSLR. I am vaccilating over whether to take it on a long bicycle trip in northern Canada and Alaska or to take a compact like one of those we have been discussing here. I also have the longest range zoom Nikon makes, an 18-200mm which in 35mm would be 27-300. But it is big and heavy and complicated. The lenses and the sensor are better, but a) I will be outdoors in daylight on almost every shot so I will be able to use high speeds and small apertures which will make the compact’s lens and sensor just as good, and b) to take really exquisite shots with the Nikon I would need to take a tripod, not something I am eager to do on a long bicycle trip.

So going back to my original objection to the Olympus SP-570UZ, my question to HTPC Guy is: How many RAW+JPG shots can you take before filling the 2GB xD memory card?

I just received my SP-570uz yesterday and took it to a large indoor awards event in the late afternoon through evening. The camera was absolutely amazing, I was able to take fully zoomed shots indoors from 40+ ft, no flash, with backlit subjects, while I was standing, handheld with no mono/tri-pod. Were the shots perfect, of course not, under those circumstances it is not possible to get perfect shots. Where the shots good, no they were exceptional. I doubt there is another camera in the world I could have used under those circumstances and got the variety of shots, both close and far, wide and narrow, with the clarity and color range I achieved with this camera.

I specifically picked this camera because after 30 years of using SLRs I have given up on them. They are too big, and require that you either carry multiple cameras or deal with time wasting and inconvenient lens swapping. I was able to use the 570uz as if it was a point and shoot camera and still able to get some amazing shots.

Regarding the flash comments. I do not understand any concerns about the flash. It is a popup flash, leave it down and it will never flash. I did test my old Vivtar flash unit on the hotshoe, it worked fine.

I’ve narrowed it down to the Nikon Coolpix P80 and the Sony Cybershot H50, (the Kodak Easyshare Z1012IS with its 720p HD Video sounds pretty good especially at 300USD or less,) And i forgot to mention that this camera is more for my sister than me. She calls the shots cuz’ she paying for it.

I can keep the telephoto lens on the camera by default in case of momentarily glimpsed wildlife, and switch to wider in case of slower-moving things like panoramas, flowers, and sunsets. With all summer to fiddle with it, I might even learn to use it.

Pros: Most important feature is that the lens zooms manually so one does not wind up screwing around with trying to frame with a wide-tele switch. I think that would be annoying unto maddening. It doesn’t so much zoom during movies as it allows you to zoom manually.

The Olympus SP-570UZ has a zoom ring but it activates a motor which actually does the zooming.

It also shoots RAW and uses SDHC memory (available up to 16GB), not xD (up to 2 GB).

It has what is claimed to be the optical equivalent of digital zoom. Zooms to 432 mm equivalent at full resolution, then to 770 mm at progressively lower resolutions down to 3 Mpxl. I am not sure what exactly that means but that is what I read. It also has a 2x digital zoom. Even if it is eyewash, 432 mm equivalent, while not the very longest, is pretty good.

As I understand it, digital “zoom” is not a zoom at all but a cropping and magnification of the image. I don’t understand how what Panasonic is doing and calling it optical is any different, but there is a lot that I don’t understand.

Good user reviews on B&H. People like the Leica lens, though one has to wonder whether their judgments are affected by the brand name. Still it’s better than them hating it.

CONS: Heavier (23.6 ounces) and bigger (like a very small DSLR) than I wanted.

PRICE: $440 at B&H versus $450 for the Olympus SP-570UZ

What makes all of this so frustrating to me is that what I really want is the Canon G9, which is a technically superior camera in a number of ways. But its lens zooms only to 44 mm, or 210 mm equivalent. I have had the experience on long bicycle trips of seeing some wonderful and amazing wildlife but so far away that all I got on my camera was a brown dot when I what I saw was a small herd of musk oxen. It will be just my luck that immediately after I can no longer return my new camera, Canon will announce the G10. But one just has to accept that anything one buys will be obsolescent in six months, obsolete in 18 months, and a joke in three years. Sigh.