Olympus SP-590 UZ

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 6 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 4 stars

  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 ...

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  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.

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 6 stars

  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 ...

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  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.

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  I'm not profesional

  by 12345pn on December 28, 2010

  Pros: Quality of pictures is enough for me. Multiexosure - you can shoot two times in one picture and panorama with holding buttom and moving camera. 2.8 aperture, intuitive and fast using of all futures, good rechargeble batteries - long shoting.

  Cons: video is little bitt poor. Synchronization of zooming and sharpnes I really don't like. It can't by to pompare with Panasonic cameras. But for emails is enough. Anyway I use camcorder.

  Summary: I like multiexposure. Its lot of fun with children and nice for weddeings and people in love. You can put picture on picture. Panorama mode I like, because you don'...

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  Summary: I like multiexposure. Its lot of fun with children and nice for weddeings and people in love. You can put picture on picture. Panorama mode I like, because you don't have to make thre shots, put them together and they are not connected exactly. Just push shooting button, hold and move camera until little point is in little square. 2.8 aperture you feel when you have Auto mode and make picture inside with regular room lights. Flash doesn't blink. Intuitive and fast usi thanks for bottons. I really preffer bottons like rotete wheel. I got good brend of rechargeble batteries, because cheap batteries was dead so fast. Generaly I thing this camera is for all family members. For young even old people. Affordable to have fun
  
  Updated on Dec 28, 2010

  enough music for thts money

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  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

  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Best camera with megazoom.

  by mihay on April 21, 2010

  Pros: good pictures @ mega zoom

  Cons: Dont have intermal memory.

• 10 stars

  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!!)

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