The big attraction of the Olympus SP-590UZ is its 26x optical zoom lens. The lens also offers wide angle capabilities, so there is plenty of flexibility to cater for a range of photo opportunities. As is typical of this type of digital camera it has a full range of manual exposure controls too. With this combination of zoom and features the SP-590UZ is likely to appeal to anyone who has a serious interest in photography. This camera has 12 megapixels.

The SP-590UZ has the longest zoom I am aware of on a digital camera as at September 2009. Throw in the manual controls and this camera is a good choice for the serious photographer, especially if you have an interest in subjects such as sports or wildlife.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The SP-590UZ gets off to a solid start. Detail levels are good, especially in lighter areas. The glare from the sun is handled well. There is a small amount of noise showing in the shady areas of the shot, such as where the sun does not reach the names on the boats.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
The wider the lens the harder is seems to be for a digital camera to produce crisp scenic shots when the lens is zoomed out. This is the case here too. Perhaps this is not surprising with a minimum focal length of 26mm. I can also detect a small amount of darkness appearing in the corners of the shot.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
If you compare this shot to test shots I have taken with other digital cameras you can see the advantage such a long zoom lens gives you. Sharpness is good without being crystal clear, but I would say I am satisfied with focusing when full zoom is used. Purple fringing does show up. If you are looking to make large prints you are likely to need to clean this up before printing.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
This is a sharper shot. There is only a small amount of zoom required here and this suggests that focusing is pretty good outside of the extreme use of zoom.

Outdoor Portrait
I like this shot. Again there is little zoom power required and focusing is good. The colours produce a warm photo. You should be able to knock out plenty of pleasing portrait shots.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
The flash unit is quite powerful. This ensures a well lit picture, but also gives quite a lot of reflected light on the face. The camera gives you to option of adjusting the power of the flash, so this is something you can experiment with to get the best possible results. Despite the amount of light I think the SP-590UZ does well to retain a lot of colour in the shot.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Without flash the SP-590UZ is still able to produce a good shot using window light. Noise levels are lower than many cameras manage in this light and this leads to a greater amount of definition showing in the shot.

Colours
Colours are a matter of personal taste. Like other Olympus digital cameras the SP-590UZ produces subtler colours than brands such as Panasonic and Sony tend to.

Macro
One benefit of the larger physical size of the lens is that is able to take a good quality close up shot. I am happy with the level of focusing and detail showing in my macro test shot.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
As you boost ISO levels noise will invariably creep in and become increasingly noticeable the further you increase ISO.

Overall
There are two problems I am used to seeing with this type of lens. These are purple fringing when the lens is fully extended and softer focusing when the lens is zoomed out. The SP-590UZ does suffer from these problems, but handles most photo opportunities well.

Perhaps the SP-590UZ could have been a touch faster. A single shot timed 0.43 seconds and five timed 9.43 seconds. With flash turned on the times were 0.59 seconds for a single shot and 17.63 seconds for five.

I found the camera fast to turn on and take the first picture. In my test the camera was timed at 2.4 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The SP-590UZ looks like a small Digital SLR. It has a good sized grip to help you hold the camera steady. It has a matt black finish.

110.1 x 89.7 x 91.0 mm

435g

Four AA batteries.

This camera is compatible with both xD and micro SD memory cards. There is enough room in the built in memory (22mb) for around 8 shots.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Difficult. With all the features this camera offers it will take you a while to get fully up and running. If you are an experienced photographer it should not take too long to find your way around.

Long lens - start up times

Purple fringing - sharper images when zoom is not used

If it is extreme zoom you are looking for then the Nikon Coolpix P90 with its 24x zoom lens is as close as you are likely to get. There is not a great deal to choose between these two cameras.

I find with these larger cameras there is less difference in the quality of the photos they take. Therefore whether you buy the Olympus SP-590UZ in preference to other similar cameras is likely to come down how you fell about the features and handling. Overall I like this camera and there is little to put me off buying.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Description:	12 megapixels and a 26x optical zoom lens
Ease of Use:	7
Features:	9
Colour:	8
Macro:	9
Indoors:	9
Value for Money:	8
Style:	9
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	8
Build Quality:	8
Total:	83
Verdict:	If it is plenty of zoom you are after you will struggle to find more than the 26x zoom on offer here. The camera does a good all round job and achieves what it sets out to do. It has a set of manual exposure controls and a wide angle lens.
Review Date:	September 2009
Related Pages:	Olympus SP-590 UZ Specification Olympus SP-590 UZ Sample Images Olympus SP-590 UZ Features

	GBP 219.99
	GBP 232.99
	GBP 255
	GBP 285.99
Click a flag for prices from other countries:

Camera	Rating
Fuji Finepix S200EXR	87
Panasonic DMC FZ38	87
Canon Powershot SX1 IS	87
Sony DSC HX1	85
Canon Powershot SX10 IS	85
Canon Powershot SX20 IS	84
Olympus SP-570 UZ	84
Olympus SP-590 UZ	83

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Olympus SP-590 UZ