It’s an Olympus SP-590UZ super-zoom. The photos below give you some idea of the range of the zoom on this thing. These photos were taken without a tripod, on a dark overcast day.

I was looking at a full SLR, and if I were a professional photographer then it would make sense. But for the same price as a decent SLR, I could afford the Olympus, and a pocket compact camera, and renew them both much sooner than I would otherwise have been able to aford. Okay, the aim isn’t to keep upgrading, since I generally replace something only when the old one breaks beyond reasonable repair, but you get the idea.

I’m not going to list all the specs, as there are far better reviews that do that. So far my likes and dislikes (I’ll keep adding to this list, as I am sure it will be useful to complement some of the excellent reviews out there).

Love:

• The zoom. It’s like a telescope, and the quality at full zoom is still pretty good.
• The wide angle. It goes to an equivalent 26mm wide angle, which is just perfect for those wide shots before we get into fish-eye territory.
• The user interface. Although most of the features are available thought the menu, all the most often used features are attached to the context-sensitive keypad on the back. Unlike my old Fuji S602, there are not dozens of key combinations to remember to get to seldom-used settings.
• Display screen. Nice and bright, colourful and detailed, even in sunlight. The digital viewfinder is not to everyone’s taste, but does the job. People have told me that without the optical viewfinder, I will never see the true picture. But then, what medium ever will record the true picture? I’m viewing the picture on a screen, and nine times out of ten, a screen is where the picture will end up.
• The noise. Although this is one of my dislikes, it is a ‘nice’ kind of noise. It is reminiscent of the grain on a higher ISO film. Maybe we are expecting too much from our digital cameras?

Dislike:

• Plastic case feels, well, plasticy. It is a thin brittle-sounding plastic. It may be perfectly okay though – being brittle, it should be harder and so will probably wear better. We will have to see.
• Plastic hinges on the covers. The USB/video/power, battery and card doors all have one-piece plastic hinges. I can see them breaking soon.
• The lens cover. It’s pathetic really – it’s loose and cannot be hooked onto the carry-cord when removed. It is difficult to get the camera in or out of its bag without the lens cover popping off.
• Noise. The noise is a little higher than I would have liked. In bright conditions it is not noticeable, but as soon as you need to turn the ISO up to 400, it’s there.

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