Find tech advice for business hereOlympus SP-590 UZ
Manufacturer: Olympus America Inc. Part number: 226755
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Aside from a debatably useful 26x zoom lens, there's little that's notable about the Olympus SP-590 UZ.
Read more
Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Your Trusted Source since 1983 |  | In stock FREE SHIPPING | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 12/03/2009 |
 Winner of Bizrate Circle of Excellence Award 2005-06-07-08!!! | | In stock FREE SHIPPING | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 | | In stock Try Free Amazon Prime for one Month | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 Once you know, you Newegg! | | In stock Your destination to Windows 7 | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 Savings, Selection & Service since 1971 | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 PREMIER SOURCE of cutting edge electronics since 1973. | | In stock FREE Fast Shipping! Top Rated Auth. Olympus Dealer w/Wa | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 | | In stock Order Now-Ships Today | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 | | In stock Order Now-Ships Today | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 Dell Home and Home Office | | In stock Free Shipping for a Limited Time! | as of 12/03/2009 | |
| Amazon.com Marketplace | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 | |
 | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 | |
| RadioShack.com | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 | |
| Sears | | In stock | as of 12/03/2009 |
CNET editors' review
Olympus SP-590 UZ price range: $311.95 - $499.99
- Reviewed by: Lori Grunin
- Reviewed on: 08/10/2009
The good: MyMode holds four groups of custom settings.
The bad: Image noise and softness even at low ISO sensitivities.
The bottom line: Aside from a debatably useful 26x zoom lens, there's little that's notable about the Olympus SP-590 UZ.
Olympus may be leading in the lens-length wars with its 26x Stylus SP-590 UZ, but it takes lots more than a long lens to make a decent megazoom; the same things it takes to make a good digital camera, like speedy performance, a competitive, useful feature set, and good photo quality. Unfortunately, the SP-590 doesn't really manage to distinguish itself from competitors in any meaningful way.
The design is typical: a big, solid body with a plasticky chassis and a large, rubberized grip accommodating the four AA batteries that power the camera. In a nice touch, the bottom of the camera extends out beneath the lens to provide a more stable platform when mounted on a tripod. Unfortunately, the camera takes two equally inconvenient forms of media: Olympus/Fujifilm's proprietary xD-Picture cards, or microSD cards which fit into an xD card adapter.
| Key comparative specs | Olympus SP-590 UZ | Nikon Coolpix P90 | Canon PowerShot SX10 IS | Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 |
| Sensor | 12-megapixel, 1/2.33-inch CCD | 12-megapixel, 1/2.33-inch CCD | 10-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD | 12-megapixel 1/2.33-inch CCD |
| Lens (35mm equivalent) | 26x f2.8-5 26-676mm | 24x f2.8-5 26-624mm | 20x f2.8-5.7 28-560mm | 18x f2-4.4 27-486mm |
| Sensitivity range | ISO 64 - ISO 6,400 | ISO 64 - ISO 6,400 | ISO 80 - ISO 1,600 | ISO 80 - ISO 6,400 |
| LCD | 2.7-inch fixed; 230,000 dots | 3-inch tiltable; 230,000 dots | 2.5-inch articulated; 230,000 dots | 2.7-inch fixed; 230,000 dots |
| Video (max resolution at 30fps) | 640x480 | 640x480 | 640x480 | 1280x720 (AVCHD Lite) |
| Optical zoom during movie capture | Yes (no audio) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Exposure modes | Auto, PASM, Scene | Auto, PASM, Scene | Auto, PASM, Scene | Auto, PASM, Scene |
| Batteries (CIPA rating) | 4 AA-size; 340 shots (alkalines) | Lithium Ion; 230 shots | 4 AA-size; 340 shots (alkalines), 600 shots (NiMH) | Lithium Ion; 470 shots |
| Body dimensions (WHD, inches) | 4.3x3.5x3.6 | 4.5x3.3x3.9 | 4.9x3.5x3.4 | 4.6x3.0x3.5 |
| Operating weight (ounces) | 18.7 | 17.2 | 23.0 | 14.6 |
| Mfr. Price | $449.99 | $399.95 | $399.99 | $399.00 |
Overall, the SP-590 is fairly straightforward to learn and operate if you've used a digital camera in the past couple of years. In addition to all the usual suspects on the mode dial, the SP-590 includes Beauty mode, which blurs skin slightly. Even if it worked extremely well, it's way too slow--approximately 20 seconds between shots--and the result is a 2-megapixel image. However, it also includes a MyMode which holds up to 4 groups of custom settings, which includes the focal length setting at the time you saved them. An OK/Func button pulls up frequently needed shooting settings, including drive mode, white balance, ISO sensitivity, metering, image size and compression. As well as the standard continuous-shooting, there are higher-speed drive modes, 6fps and 10fps, but they operate at reduced image sizes of 5 and 3 megapixels, respectively. This includes a precapture high-speed mode that shoots 10 3-megapixel frames at 10fps from focus lock until you snap the photo.
There are dedicated buttons for exposure compensation, flash, macro mode, and self timer, as well as toggling Shadow Adjustment and a custom button to which you can assign a variety of capabilities, including image stabilizer, focus/AE lock, and focus mode. You can exposure bracket up to 5 shots--most cameras limit you to 3--in +/- 1/3, 2/3 or full stop intervals. While the SP-590 supports optical zoom while recording video--at best the camera does 30fps VGA saved as Motion-JPEG compressed AVI files--you can't zoom and record sound. That's certainly one way to defeat lens noise. (For a full accounting of the SP-590 UZ's features and controls, you can download a PDF of the manual.)
With the exception of overly long shot lag in dim light, the SP-590 delivers pretty typical performance for a megazoom. It powers on and shoots in 1.6 seconds, which is actually pretty fast for its cohort. In good light it matches the focus-and-shoot speed of the best of its class--0.6 second--but in dim light it struggles, resulting in an overly slow 1.4-second delay. Its 2-second shot-to-shot time matches the rest of the crowd, and enabling flash bumps that to a pretty typical 2.5 seconds. While its continuous shooting rate of 1.2 frames per second sits close to the bottom of its class, frame rate is almost immaterial with an EVF camera since your real constraint for burst usability is the blackout interval of the viewfinder, which is almost universally bad.
As is typical with EVFs, the colors look completely different than on the LCD, but it refreshes quickly, even in low light, and it's relatively well-magnified. The LCD itself is too reflective to work well in direct sunlight, but you can set everything to display only on the EVF. Olympus' optical image stabilizer works well out to the end of the zoom range.
I debated between rating the SP-590 UZ's photo quality as a 6 or 7. It's not bad, and if you're not picky, you'll probably be very happy with the photos. However, even at low sensitivities (ISO 64 and ISO 100) my photos displayed visible noise, a lack of sharpness and had that painterly artifact quality usually associated with higher ISO images, which makes prints look soft. The automatic white balance yields cool results in all lights (which, ironically, results in pretty good rendering under incandescent lighting). But metering and exposures are good, and there's practically no fringing. Colors are vibrant and pleasing, but not very accurate. The low-resolution video capture looks pretty good and perfectly sufficient for YouTube, but it's hard to get around the audio/zoom tradeoff.
Ultimately, the Olympus SP-590 UZ ranks as a functional but not particularly notable megazoom. While none of the current models have a 26x zoom lens, as with many megazooms the EVF makes it impractical to shoot the things most people want the long lens for--kids' sports, for example. So you might as well go with an alternative: save money with a cheaper camera or got for a more expensive camera and get better image quality and performance.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
 |
Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
User reviews
-
-
Best camera I've owned.
by supoman on November 9, 2009
Pros: Zoom, battery life, many modes.
Cons: Lens cap comes off really easy.
Summary: Best camera I've own. Takes way better pictures than the Canon Rebel XT that I own!!(without the need to buy the extra expensive lenses!!)
Summary: Best camera I've own. Takes way better pictures than the Canon Rebel XT that I own!!(without the need to buy the extra expensive lenses!!)
-
Yeah yeah...not so much
by sqshydog on August 28, 2009
Pros: AA batteries, 26x zoom, 12 mp
Cons: image quality, manual flip-up flash, fixed LCD
Summary: I bought this model to replace my DSLR and my other ancient point and shoot. I should have paid more attention to the reviews.
What's good?
AA batteries! If ...Summary: I bought this model to replace my DSLR and my other ancient point and shoot. I should have paid more attention to the reviews.
What's good?
AA batteries! If you kill 'em, you can replace 'em immediately. Awesome!
The 26x zoom gets you right on top of whatever you're shooting. Very nice! It's smooth and fast but almost too fast. I unintentionally zipped right by some good shots and had to back it off more times than I can count. The digital zoom was velvet smooth and also pretty quick if you need to use it. Speed alone doesn't set any camera apart from any of the other horses in the race, though.
What's good enough?
The in-hand feel of this camera is decent. It is well-built and only felt a bit cramped in my average sized hands. I was never able to get a good feel of the button layout, but that's neither here nor there. The menus aren't intuitive and proved to be a headache to navigate. Overall, this camera simply isn't what I have become accustomed to in that regard.
Start up and shooting response time is blazing but equal, in my non-pro tests, to the Sony HX1 and Nikon P90. Any lag (except in burst mode or low light) is negligible.
In normal lighting conditions, the auto focus is spot on. In low light, be prepared to wait forever for it to adjust and adjust and adjust to catch your subject, if it ever does. The flash seemed very slow to recycle and I wasn't too hip on having to flip it up manually when I needed it by pushing a button. Given the <allegedly> advanced feature set of this camera, one would think that it would have had an auto flip up flash.
The video is just average...run of the mill. No 1080 option and no sound while zooming. That is of little consequence since shooting video with a camera like this really isn't all that important to me.
The LCD is crisp and clear even in bright light. I only wish that it wasn't fixed.
Aside from the learning curve and little irritations, what made me reallllllllly dislike it, though?
First and foremost, it was the photo quality. No matter how hard I tried or how much I adjusted manually, the colors just didn't "catch". Everything appears washed out and/or fringed. If it wasn't washed out or fringed, the images were just way too smooth. The scene detection modes never quite "got" it, either. I got a few nice macro shots but that's about it. I didn't buy the camera for taking photos from an inch away all of the time. Digital zoom obviously presents problems in photo quality with any camera like this. This one, however, was horrible and much worse than the competitors that I tried out. Luckily, I don't rely on digital zoom much, if at all. I still expect a halfway decent performance from it if I DO choose to use it, though. General photo quality left MUCH to be desired and I will just leave it at that.
It was incredibly noisy to use, in general, too. The whining and grinding noises kinda irritated me after a few minutes.
Overall, there are much better options out there for the price, imo. -
Very good for wildlife photography
by bfelstein1 on June 2, 2009
Pros: The zoom is excellent for getting wildlife that is in a field at quite a distance
Cons: At low light it tends to want to use flash in shots where it is not possible to us the flash
Summary: A good camera for getting wildlife shots without using a tripod
Summary: A good camera for getting wildlife shots without using a tripod
-
Many good features, but this camera didn't work for me.
by mary3862 on April 29, 2009
Pros: Powerful zoom, good built in stabilization, quick focus and shutter speed, uses aa batteries which are available anywhere.
Cons: Image quality was poor, colors faded in both sun and shade, excessive noise, no infinity setting meaniing I couldn't shoot through tree branches. Sometimes it wouldn't focus when using the full zoom.
Summary: After much research I ordered this camera before it was available. I picked it up the day it came in and used if for 29 days. There were things I ...
Summary: After much research I ordered this camera before it was available. I picked it up the day it came in and used if for 29 days. There were things I loved about it, but the bottom line was the quality of the pictures was not acceptable. I am not a professional and do not want to be changing settings on a regular basis to accomplish this. I returned the camera and am now trying The Coolpix P90.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Olympus America Inc.
- Part number: 226755
- Description: The SP series is an ultra zoom legend and with the SP-590UZ Olympus improved its zoom competence once more: due to the built-in 26x ultra zoom it is now nearly impossible to escape the SP-590UZ. The dual image stabilization prevents blurry images, even when using the 26x optical zoom, and with advanced Face Detection technology your camera detects up to 16 faces and sets the optimal focus and exposure. The camera offers of a high speed 10fps sequence shooting and P/A/S/M exposure mode for creative freedom. And thanks to the High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) you can admire your razor sharp photos on a high definition television.
General
- Product Type Digital camera - Compact
- Width 4.3 in
- Depth 3.6 in
- Height 3.5 in
- Weight 15.3 oz
Main Features
- Resolution 12 megapixels
- Color Support Color
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Total Pixels 12,700,000 pixels
- Effective Sensor Resolution 12,000,000 pixels
- Light Sensitivity ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO auto
- Digital Zoom 5 x
- Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
- Shooting Programs Beauty, Candle, Indoor, Sunset, Cuisine, Documents, Fireworks, Landscape, Beach/snow, Smile shot, Night scene, Sports mode, Bird watching, Portrait mode, Multi-firework, Soft background, Multiple exposure, Night scene with portrait
- Special Effects Sepia, Black & White
- Image Stabilizer Optical (image sensor shift mechanism)
- Max Shutter Speed 1/2000 sec
- Min Shutter Speed 4 sec
- Exposure Metering Spot, Multi-segment, Center-weighted
- Exposure Modes Bulb, Manual, Program, Automatic, Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority
- Exposure Compensation ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
- Auto Exposure Bracketing 5 steps in 1/3 EV step
- Face Detection Yes
- White Balance Custom, Presets, Automatic
- White Balance Presets Overcast, Sunlight, Tungsten light, Fluorescent light (daylight), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (warm white)
- Digital Video Format AVI, MJPEG
- Still Image Format RAW, JPEG
- TV Tuner None
- Video Capture AVI - 640 x 480, AVI - 640 x 480, AVI - 320 x 240
Memory / Storage
- Integrated Memory 22 MB
- Floppy Drive None
- Image Storage JPEG 3968 x 2976, JPEG 2560 x 1920, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 1280 x 960, JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 3968 x 2232, JPEG 1920 x 1080
Camera Flash
- Camera Flash Pop-up flash
- Guide Number (m / ISO 100) 8
- Effective Flash Range 1 ft - 21 ft
- Features AF illuminator, Flash +/- compensation
Lens System
- Type Zoom lens - 4.6 mm - 119.6 mm - F/2.8-5.0
- Focal Length 4.6 mm - 119.6 mm
- Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 26 - 676 mm
- Focus Adjustment Manual, Automatic
- Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
- Min Focus Range 3.9 in
- Macro Focus Range 1cm
- Lens Aperture F/2.8-5.0
- Optical Zoom 26 x
- Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
- Lens Construction 11 group(s) / 14 element(s)
- Features ED glass, Aspherical lens
Additional Features
- Self Timer Yes
- Self Timer Delay 2 sec, 12 sec
- Additional Features DPOF support, Direct print, Face detection, Audio recording, Built-in speaker, Contrast control, Cropping an image, Histogram display, Resizing an image, Sharpness control, PictBridge support, Saturation control, PRINT Image Matching, YouTube capture mode, In-camera red-eye fix, USB 2.0 compatibility, Digital image rotation, Interval shooting mode, Digital noise reduction, Dual image stabilization, Display brightness control, Digital image stabilization, Shadow Adjustment Technology, Automatic Pixel Mapping (APM)
Viewfinder
- Viewfinder Type Electronic
Display
- Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2.7 in - Color
- Display Form Factor Built-in
- Display Format 230,000 pixels
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Type None
Microphone
- Type Microphone - Built-in
- Microphone Technology Electret condenser
- Microphone Operation Mode Mono
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x USB, 1 x DC power input, 1 x HDMI output
- Expansion Slot(s) 1 x xD-Picture Card
Software
- Software Olympus Master, Drivers & Utilities
System Requirements for PC Connection
- Operating System Support MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows Vista, Apple Mac OS X 10.3 - 10.5
- Peripheral Devices USB port, CD-ROM drive
Miscellaneous
- Carrying Case None
- Microsoft Certifications Certified for Windows Vista
- Included Accessories Lens cap, Hand strap, microSD to XD adapter
- Cables Included USB cable, A/V cable
Power
- Power Device None
Battery
- Supported Battery AA
- Supported Battery 4 x AA ( Included )
Environmental Parameters
- Min Operating Temperature 32 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 104 °F
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Olympus America Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Olympus America Inc. products on Shopper.com
-
- Website: http://www.olympusamerica.com/
- Address:
Two Corporate Center Dr., Melville, NY 11747 - Phone: 631-844-5000
