Description
With its 15x wide-angle zoom and one-touch HD movie recording feature, the SP-600UZ is one seriously sophisticated camera. But don’t let its big capabilities fool you. The SP-600UZ is truly compact, making it the perfect travel companion for weekend getaways, and everyday snapshots.
Olympus SP-600UZ 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Zoom
Left Main
15x Wide-Angle Zoom (F3.5-F5.4, 28-420mm Equivalent) This 15x zoom lets you get incredibly close to your subject while the 28mm wide-angle lens lets you zoom back out for panoramas and group shots.
HD Movie 720p A simple, one-touch button allows you to record movies with amazing clarity in high-definition, right from your camera.
Dual Image Stabilization The 2-in-1 anti-blur solution. Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization, which keeps your shot steady by compensating for camera shake, combines with Digital Image Stabilization to capture crisp, clear images in any situation.
Olympus SP-600UZ 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Zoom
Front View
AF Tracking Automatically tracks unpredictable, fast-moving subjects like kids and pets. Continuously adjusts the focus and brightness so you can easily capture a great shot of your subject in motion.
Creative Art Filters Give your photos a distinct look and artistic feel by applying one of four different Magic Filter effects, including Pop Art, Pinhole, Fisheye and Drawing.
Olympus SP-600UZ 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Zoom
Top View
720p/1080 Movie Mode and list of
High Definition Move Mode Cameras
720p has higher vertical resolution than 1080i, making it preferable for
sporting events such as auto racing and basketball that move at a very fast pace
on live television
Olympus SP-600UZ 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Zoom
Back LCD
Features
12 Megapixels
The 12 million pixels in the high-resolution CCD create superior image quality. Create large prints without losing a single detail.
15x Optical Zoom
All the capabilities you need in one compact lens. The 15x optical zoom gets you close to the action while the 28mm wide-angle lens lets you capture breathtaking panoramas.
2.7-inch LCD
This large 2.7-inch LCD features an extra-wide viewing angle and anti-glare technology for easier composing and shooting even in direct, bright sunlight.
HD Movie 720p
A simple, one-touch button allows you to record movies with amazing clarity in high-definition, right from your camera.
Dual Image Stabilization
Dual Image Stabilization combines Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization with high ISO sensitivity and fast shutter speeds to capture crisp, clear images in any situation.
1 GB Internal Memory
Store more photos and videos than ever before, right in your camera with 1GB of internal memory (usable memory is 0.83GB.)
AF Tracking
AF Tracking automatically tracks unpredictable, fast-moving subjects such as kids and pets, and continuously adjusts the focus and brightness so you can capture these photogenic whirlwinds with ease.
Creative Art Filters
Using Creative Art Filters you can give your photos a distinct look and artistic feel by applying one of four different in-camera effects, including Pop Art, Pinhole, Fisheye and Drawing.
Intelligent Auto
The Intelligent Auto setting identifies the scene you're shooting -- portrait, landscape, night portrait, macro, or sport -- and adjusts the settings to optimize results.
Advanced Face Detection
Face Detection automatically focuses on your subjects' faces and optimizes exposure for sharp, brilliant portrait pictures.
In-Camera Panorama
Captures three images and stitches them together to create one amazing panoramic picture by simply pressing the shutter button and slowly panning across a panoramic scene.
Shadow Adjustment
Shadow Adjustment Technology helps you capture scenes exactly as you see them, even in difficult lighting situations -- perfect for outside shots in bright sun when dark shadows are prevalent or shooting in backlit situations.
Beauty Mode
Beauty Mode lets you smooth a person’s skin, removing unwanted wrinkles or blemishes. Additionally, make subtle edits, such as slightly emphasizing and brightening the eyes, with a new post-capture feature: Beauty Fix.
Perfect Shot Preview
Using a live, multi-frame window on the LCD, Perfect Shot Preview lets you view the effects of various settings and then select and capture the perfect shot.
Item Includes
• Olympus SP-600UZ Digital Camera
• 4 x AA Alkaline Batteries
• USB 2.0 Cable
• AV Cable
• Lens Cap w/ Lens Cap Strap
• Camera Strap
• Manual
• 1-Year Olympus Warranty
Reviews
Good Zoom, June 15, 2010
By Small House Small Budget
This review is from: Olympus SP-600UZ 12MP Digital Camera with 15x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Electronics)
Features and Video Quality only got 4 stars because I don't have enough experience in these areas to give a more definitive answer. Value for Price also got only 4 stars. Olympus cameras tend to be on the higher side, though not at the top, and now there are other comparable cameras on the market. I paid over $300, and I think under $300 is a better price point.
Last fall, we purchased another digital camera, one with a 24X zoom. As it is somewhat bulky, I have tended to carry my old workhorse, a 5MP Kodak with a 10X zoom, when away from home. My husband has ended up as the primary user of the new camera. While I had been thinking of upgrading the 5MP camera, it was low on the list of "Things To Buy."
Two things influenced me in purchasing the Olympus SP-600 UZ. One was that one of the shopping channels offered it on installment payments, making it seem less of a luxury item. Not only did it have a higher megapixel count, but it also had a bigger zoom--until quite recently, hard to come by at a reasonable price, though now there are several models to choose from. The second factor was the Olympus brand. We also have an Olympus Stylus which is impact-resistant, waterproof, and will operate at low temperatures. Because of the small zoom on this camera, we generally use it only when on the water, but I do like the color saturation of the photos.
Of course I read the reviews online before deciding to go ahead with the Olympus SP-600UZ. Reviewers discussed the lack of a printed manual, so I had downloaded it from the Olympus website even before my camera arrived.
Per the instructions, I loaded the drivers and the accompanying IB software. I then hooked up the camera to my computer to set it up. To my consternation, nothing happened. When I touched the cable to remove it, a message flashed across the camera screen warning that the cable should not be disconnected.
While I was still puzzling out what my next step should be, the software finally loaded and the "first use" procedure began. What I had assumed to be a malfunction was actually just an excruciatingly slow process. (I should note that my computer only has 2 gigs of memory, and I don't know whether that was a factor. I use Photoshop Elements 8, and this program is considerably slower to load than was the case with Photoshop Elements 7.)
The IB software ended up on my computer as a startup program. Since I'm usually cautious about allowing this, I don't think I was given a choice. I had to go in and disable it, since I want to download my photos into Photoshop Elements.
The manufacturer's assumption seems to be that the user will do a lot of editing in-camera. This may be a good thing for people with a practiced eye for looking at the captured screen. For me, it's necessary to get an image up on my computer before making any editing decisions.
The menu structure is fairly complex. I find that I have to use the printed manual to get a clue about how to get to the sub-menus. Other than changing the screen mode, though, I don't generally utilize other adjustments. I'm your basic plain-vanilla user. If there are be additional functions I'll need away from home, I'll probably have to memorize how to do them to avoid excessive cycling through the menus. The thought of doing this in bright sunlight is doubly unappealing. The nested menus are unavoidable when there are a lot of options, though, so the alternative might be dumbing down the camera, not a good thing either.
I let the Olympus IB program download the first batch of photos I took. The program immediately wanted to begin face recognition and asked me to tag the images by geographic location. This is not something I'm interested in, though I my give it a whirl at some future time on my stored photos. I did not attempt to do any editing here, since my experience has been that software included with cameras is more rudimentary than I would like. From my brief overview of the editing functions in IB, I would say this is the case here.
I hooked up the camera again and went into Photoshop Elements. Elements downloaded not only the images but the in-camera PDF manuals. (At that point, I was using only the internal memory of the camera.) I have Elements set up so that I can delete all images by confirming. Of course I didn't want to lose the onscreen material, so I went back into the camera and deleted the photos manually. I have added a memory card, which means I can remove downloaded photos with no fear of deleting the PDF files. This is definitely something to watch out for, though, especially if, like me, you load the batteries and start snapping away the minute the camera is out of the box. Caution should also be used when formatting a card, as it is possible to format the internal memory by mistake.
I'm happy with the photos I've taken so far. I like the heft of the camera, and the location of the controls feels natural. Like other people, I've struggled with the infamous battery and card cover. It's not easy to close, but once it's snapped into place and locked, it seems secure. So far, I haven't turned on the camera by mistake, but that could be a factor of how I lift it from the case.
People have complained about the lens cap coming off too easily. I think it's made this way because if you turn on the camera before removing the cap, it should pop off without hanging up the lens mechanism (as it pushes out the lens). My old Kodak had push tabs on the side of the cap, but it still would come off fairly readily, and was maybe only fractionally more likely to remain in place .
One feature I like very much is that the flash doesn't operate until you manually flip it up. With my old camera, there were occasions when I was trying to photograph documents or microfilm screens. These photos were spoiled by the flash reflecting off the surfaces. Since (typically for me), I hadn't spent much time with the manual, I didn't know how to turn off the flash and was too impatient to try pushing buttons or going through menus.
I'm happy with my new camera. It's a vast improvement over my old one.
