Olympus sp-100 oppinions

PON307G wrote:

Interesting camera, but as of this evening Olympus SP-100 EE is only available for pre-order through Olympus USA on their web page.

Larry C.

Hi,

Its now arrived in the shops in Australia. It looks like a nice unit, if its like the stylus 1 for images it would be a good unit. The back screen was the sharpest out of all the cameras I looked at, it felt solid and seem to focus quickly. I liked the manual controls, hdr, panorama. I couldn't really tell the image quality as I had only 30 mins trying various cameras in the shop. I hope reviews will come out shortly.

Cheers

Steve.

I'm very interested in this big zoom from Oly as it looks to have a few things my Canon SX50 does not..namely a good EVF. The Oly shows it to have a 920k resolution and the LCD to have 460k. The dot sight should work nicely..fingers crossed. If it's the same sensor (it appears so) as the 820UZ, (their 40x zoom cam), the image quality should be top notch. Photography blog reviewed the 820UZ and gave it's IQ a 4.5/5 rating..highest of any power zooms, including the Canon SX40/50, Nikon P510/520, Panny FZ70/200, and Fuji HS35/50. I've always liked the Oly colors, easy and logical menu, and jpeg performance. Hope to see some images soon.

stevenic wrote:

Its now arrived in the shops in Australia. It looks like a nice unit, if its like the stylus 1 for images it would be a good unit. The back screen was the sharpest out of all the cameras I looked at, it felt solid and seem to focus quickly. I liked the manual controls, hdr, panorama. I couldn't really tell the image quality as I had only 30 mins trying various cameras in the shop. I hope reviews will come out shortly.

Cheers

Steve.

A red dot sight is convenient for acquiring a small/distant subject, without having to zoom out to find it... and then zoom back in to take the photo (something that's especially painful with a motorised zoom, and very long focal lengths).

But in my opinion, where it really shines is for acquiring fast-moving subjects at high zoom, and with that in mind the things I'd be looking for are fast AF, fast burst rates, fast shot-to-shot and buffer clearing etc. Effective IS at high zoom. A lens that's still fast at long focal lengths may also be very helpful, depending on intended use.

If it doesn't deliver in those areas, I think I'd be looking elsewhere and adding my own red dot sight to it. Previously, my best option overall, was the Panasonic FZ200 with a red dot sight added, and a teleconverter to extend its reach.

But the FZ200 is weak on buffer clearing, and Olympus gear seems to have the advantage there. I've already switched to a Stylus 1 for most things. Stylus 1 covers most of the things I used the FZ200 for, but with a larger sensor... and for bursts, it takes advantage of high-write-speed cards. It leaves the FZ200 in the dust for number of shots possible in a single burst, and ability to fire multiple bursts in rapid succession. The XZ-10 seems similarly quick - maybe the SP 100 is too.

There are times (big airshows) where I still need the reach of the FZ200... so I'm always on the lookout for a better superzoom. Waiting for SP 100 reviews...

Hi all,

It looks like it was released in Australia earlier than most other places. On Amazon it won't be available to mid to late April.

Cheers

Steve.

Hi,

I just found this link to pictures that this camera takes, if it takes this kind of quality I am impressed. Kink : http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1365254

I think it will give the canon sx 50 a run for its money. I am very tempted to buy it.

Cheers

Steve.

KJaay wrote:

Thank you, the image IQ looks really good. Hopefully the speed is ok.

I hope so too. It looks like it should be out late March in Europe and the US by what I read on the internet. Its already out in Australia. It was the camera that really was impressed with in the shop in its price range.

Cheers

Steve.

Hi,

I hope to compare some cameras tomorrow.

Cheers

Steve.

KJaay wrote:

Please Let us know what you find.

Hi,

I give a quick summary. I went to 2 shops took photos indoors and viewed them on there computer. I took photos of all multicolored textas and in another shop fruit and textas, viewing from close up and approx. 4 m away. All indoor photos and I took all them on AUTO setting

Nikon P600: Was the sharpest, brightest and most detailed of the images. I found however the images indoors lacked a little vibrancy but were the cleanest and looked natural. They took the brightest photos indoors  Also focusing took a bit of time (slow) especially on video and a bit with photos as well.

Canon sx50: The most vibrant/full color (same as canon sx700), detailed and clean. Good focusing on video and photos. Love the smoothness of the zoom , I am impressed. I liked the colours on the canon but loved the cleanliness of the Nikon P600 photos. Hard choice.

Olympus sp-100: The second most vibrant (behind canon) more vibrant than Nikon P600 , detailed images. Good focusing on both on video and photos, and very smooth operation, but a little more difficult than canon to navigate the menu. However I tried two Olympus and one seemed to take darker photos, it kept going to ISO1600 so the photos were a bit more grainy than the first two above. All other cameras were around ISO 400 or 800. I wasn't sure if it was faulty. The other Olympus in the other shop seem to take cleaner photos and werent as dark, I was impressed.

Olympus colors are vibrant, natural and sharp with good detail. Actually the shop assistant commented it probably had the best contrast in the photos of all cameras.

Canon sx700: I felt the images matched the quality of the sx50 (vibrant, clear, detailed) and it was the best overall video quality of all units tested, very smooth fast focusing on both videos and photos. Probably the best video of all these cameras. I briefly took a couple photos with the sx280, I felt the sx700 was sharper and more detailed.

Nikon P9700: Nice detailed images not as vibrant and clean as the canons. Focusing not as good as the sx700. I like that it has panorama mode but canon dosent.

Nikon L830: Images detailed but a bit flat/dull in color and more grainy at high ISO. Focusing took awhile to on video and photos. Good budget camera

Panasonic F270 (I think) 60 x zoom: It seem to have focusing issues, it took okay photos not very clean photos.

I haven't decided what I get yet as I want to do some tests outdoors and more zoom shots. At least 4 of them I be happy to keep, so hard to choose.

Cheers

Steve.

KJaay wrote:

Thank you, very informative and interesting, really helps sense I live where it is hard to get to a store that carries these cams. The Oly is looking like a pretty good camera, the Nikon seems great but the auto focus is slow. Is the AF on the Nikon that slow when shooting single images as the video, and is the IQ on the Oly close to Nikon. How about the speed of the Oly? Let us know the one you choose.

Thank you again Steve.

Mmm hard choice. I would say its  close, I say the Nikon is the sharpest probably cooler pictures, the canon has richer warmer more vibrant colors, the Olympus somewhere in the middle. The only concern I had with the Oly was the low light performance on one of the units wasn't very good, which made the pictures more noisy than the Nikon P600 and canon sx50. If that was the case generally with Oly-100 then I would say the others would be better in low light. Again I am basing it on about 3 hours of comparing about 7-8 cameras with about 4 photos on each and a video recording zooming it in and out and fiddling with the controls. The canon sx 700 was the best focuser, followed by a close second with canon sx50 and the Oly. The Oly zoomed out slower too. The Nikon was a little behind not bad just you could tell it took a bit more time focusing and readjusting itself especially on video which would be frustrating for some but it took very clear photos. I hope to check the Oly out again probably in about a month I hope that helps.

Cheers

Steve.