Does this little ultrazoom camera kick down the door with killer image quality and features? Read on to find out in our comprehensive Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ review.
Review summary of the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ:
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Scoreboard » Features » Side-by-side » Gallery » |
 We're pretty happy with the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ. This underdog has clawed its way up in the Ultra Zoom pack with a great imaging performance, solid handling and oodles of manual controls and image features. For the advanced budget shooter or the novice looking to learn, the Stylus SP-565UZ is an excellent choice. And that's not because the Stylus SP-565UZ is capable of a 20x optical zoom range and has a zillion Scene modes. This camera is built like a tank, handles like a mini DSLR and is equipped with a welcoming interface that helps you actually learn how to use the camera. From Auto all the way up to full-on Manual mode, Olympus has included many shooting modes that fluctuate the level of manual intensity to suit the needs of the shooter. The Stylus SP-565UZ's image quality is not too shabby either. In fact, it's one of the best performances we've seen from a camera with such a small sensor. So, if you're looking for a zoom machine with tons of features and great image quality, the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ could be your next weapon of choice. Release: October 2008. Price: $400.
Pros: Surprisingly good image quality. Tons of features and great interface. Huge 20x optical Zoom.
Cons: 4-way directional pad could be replaced with a wheel or dial. Slight image artifacts, typical of a small imager. Small LCD screen.
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Full Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ Review:
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Design – Very Good
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ looks like a scaled-down DSLR, but its burly construction and cushy handling place this ultrazoom camera at the head of the pack. With a 20x optical range, it can reach many places most cameras are incapable of reaching. The camera also has a spring-loaded pop-up flash, bulky shutter button zoom toggle and a large, chunky mode dial. You also get an electronic viewfinder with a rubberized eyepiece, rugged port covers and an ergonomic right hand side, complete with rubber trim for added grip.
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has an all-black body with metal trim that boosts the style factor. The camera is fairly light for its size. Weighing in at just around a pound, this is an Ultra Zoom you can easily toss into a small camera bag or large jacket pocket. The 2.5" LCD screen is a little smaller than we would have hoped for though.
Olympus includes a lens cover that fits over the ridge of the lens barrel. This design is a trifle faulty because, without any locking mechanism, the cover is prone to jarring itself loose. A neck strap is also included to prevent a tragic drop, though it might make you look more like a tourist. All in all, Olympus has designed a fierce brick of an ultrazoom camera.
Interface - Good
Like most cameras in this class, the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ features a round, four-way directional pad that serves as the primary steering wheel for most camera operations. The OK/FUNCTION button located in the middle of the d-pad cues the Function menu. Regardless, we love this menu because its x/y axis structure allows you scroll up and down to select an option category and right and left to select a setting within that category. One really nifty feature is the ability to customize the color scheme of the menus if you're not pleased with the drab prepackaged yellow and grey scheme.
The Main menu is slightly eccentric, displaying large icons such as Camera Menu and Setup that you can individually select to bring up their corresponding menus. All action is smooth and options are logically laid out. Olympus menus are definitely well-packed and highly intuitive. This is a major plus for beginners who want to expand their photographic knowledge.
A spray of additional buttons surrounds the d-pad, including a separate button for toggling the LCD screen and viewfinder. The LCD screen does not offer the sharpest picture, but rather a pixilated display, making it difficult to manually focus the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ. We do like the quick functions located on all four points of the d-pad, including Macro, Flash and Exposure settings. There's nothing outside of the box here in terms of interface design, but the Stylus SP-565UZ handles like a champ, nonetheless.
Features – Very Good
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ is equipped with plenty of advanced features we usually find on higher-end cams. The Stylus SP-565UZ has an ISO range of 64 to 6400. Of course, in our tests, the picture was noisy as ever, but it's nice to have the option if you want to capture low light images and resize them to much smaller resolutions. At 6400 ISO, you can only capture an image at a 5-megapixel max anyway. White Balance options are bountiful. Aside from the standard Fluorescent and Cloudy presets, the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a White Balance equalizer that allows you to adjust the Red and Blue levels via a vertical slider. The equalizer is not particularly effective in extreme Kelvin temperatures, but it will warm up or cool off an image that needs a slight temperature adjustment. The Manual Focus on the camera is a great feature, but the magnified screen is too small and the poor resolution of the LCD screen eats away at the Sharpness of the image, so we didn't have much luck with it in our tests.
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a Program AE mode, which automatically adjusts the Shutter Speed and Aperture and allows the shooter to do the rest. Along with Program mode is a Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority mode. The Shutter Speed range is 15 seconds to 1/1000 of a second while the Aperture range spans from f/2.8 to f/8. These are reasonably average ranges, though the 15 second shutter speed will allow you to shoot extreme light trailing in exceedingly dark shooting environments. Using the d-pad to set the Shutter Speed and Aperture is easy, but it lacks the refinement and advanced control of a set wheel or dial. It's quick and easy to adjust, but the camera is saddled with a consumer-oriented interface.
In most modes you can adjust the Exposure 6 full EV steps up and 6 full EV steps down. There's also a Shadow Adjust button that functions like a Backlight Compensation utility, brightening the shadows to provide a more well-rounded illumination of the subject. The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a handful of secondary image adjustments that allow you to adjust the Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation. You can shoot in Vivid mode, which heightens the color saturation, and there's also a Noise Reduction feature.
For beginners, the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a Guide mode that walks you through various shooting scenarios like Brightness control and Color effects. A screen with miniature preview windows will display a side-by-side comparison of each setting to let the shooter choose which White Balance setting or Exposure level to shoot with. As if that wasn't enough, we can't forget about the 25 Scene Modes, which will shoot a plethora of different shooting environments. 25 is a bit absurd, but we'll take Bird Watching and Behind Glass, what the hey. Throw in 640 x 480 VGA video recording and the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ is packed to the brim with features.
Hardware - Good
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a small 1/2.33" 10-megapixel imager that can be found on many lower-tier cams. We weren't surprised when our tests revealed image quality that wasn't earth-shattering. Certain cameras are able to defy the small size of their imager thanks to the good genes of advanced processing. Olympus has not revamped the processing for the Stylus SP-565UZ, so image performance will be comparable to the Olympus Stylus SP-570UZ. The camera's lens can capture a decent amount of scenery in the frame, thanks to its 26mm wide capability.
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a 13.5fps burst mode, though images can only be captured at a 3MP max. Still, that's a fairly high number of shots. The Dual Image Stabilization system combines Optical and Digital Image Stabilization, rather than one or the other. We found the Stylus SP-565UZ's Image Stabilization to function quite well, especially at lower shutter speeds. The camera uses four AA batteries for power. One thing to note is that the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ runs on xD cards or Micro SD cards with an adapter, which could be unconvenient unless you're planning to use an USB cable for image transfer.
Image Quality - Good
Given size of the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ's smaller imager, we weren't expecting a monumental imaging performance. But this camera proved that it could hang with the better ultrazoom models with a solid performance across the board. Sure the camera is stricken with some typical issues: noise, blooming, contrast, etc. However, these negative image artifacts are minimal and do not detract from the overall image unless you view it at full resolution. Even then, nearly every image is passable.
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ could use a little kick in the ass when it comes to color though, as most images lacked the vibrant kick we wanted to see. The camera's performance is most comparable to the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, though the camera displays a better dynamic range capable of handling highly contrasted scenes. However, the Stylus SP-565UZ can't match the stellar color performance of the PowerShot SX10 IS. Overall, this little ultrazoom cranked out some beautiful detail and great low light images, though some manual control was required.
Scene Test – Building
Scene Test – St. Marks Place
The lighting against the building is optimal. Here we can make out the texture of the building and discern the sharp lines of its structure. There's a touch of noise in some of the edge shadows, but nothing to write home about. You can also see slight fringing along certain edge shadows but again, these are minor cases. The sky is fairly blown out the farther you travel out of focus, and this is something that most cameras of this caliber struggle with. Overall, this is a very good image.
Even in the street the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ churns a great performance. Of course, there are blatant blow-outs transpiring upon the white brick and windows. But aside from that, the rest of the image is sharp as a tack and displays almost no noise levels. What a surprise performance for such a compact camera.
Color Test – Mosaic
Here's an example of the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ's tendency to run on the bland side when it comes to color. We could have used a bit more in the reds, yellows and light blues. The detail is great, no doubt about it, but we're missing an essential punchy vibe here. This is where you'll have to play with the Saturation since you can't rely on Auto mode. Check out the exploding white sky. That's obviously a contrast issue that we found to be more rare with the Stylus SP-565UZ, but it could pop up when you least expect it.
Sharpness Test – Graffiti
Here we're searching for aliasing, or "stepping," along curved lines and purple or blue fringing along the edges of the black lines. Well, they're there, but on a miniscule scale. With this imager, both compression artifacts are essentially inevitable in a shot like this, but the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ does a great job staving off most of their infringing attacks. Noise is extremely low, and this is one of the best performances we've seen within this class of camera.
Detail Test – Pigeon
The detail here is top notch. You can feel the neurotic wave emitted by the pigeon. We could have used a little more detail in the leaves up front, but the pigeon and surrounding hexagonal stones are quite crisp. This is another great show.
Contrast Test – Flowers
An image like this is a camera's worst nightmare. We're looking for blooming here, and we don't mean the flowers. The purple edges along the white flowers are what we call "blooming", and you can catch a good deal of it along the left side of the image. White in the foreground vs. white in the background is such a tall order for a camera like this, and the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ struggles to allocate the right colored pixels to where they should belong. Hence, the mishmash of purplish edges. Surprisingly, the rest of the image is marvelously focused and sharp, displaying excellent detail. It's just that extreme portion of the image along the left side that takes us down to point-and-shoot quality town.
Macro Test – Phone
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ allowed us to get fairly close to this dangerous germ warfare weapon, and you can almost see evil little amoebas crawling about. We would have liked a little more detail and sharpness along the rings of the holes, though. This is an average performance.
Detail and Contrast Test – Hangin' With Mr. Cooper
Here we're looking for more of a whole package. The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS just couldn't get this shot right. We tried numerous settings and the sky in the background was blown out every time. Here you can see how well the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ handles the background while still adequately exposing Mr. Cooper and his splendorous title. No blowouts, no harsh shadows, just a decent overall image.
Night Test – LIRR Station
Night Test – LIRR Tracks
Night Test – Macy's
Usually when the sun goes down, so does the image quality. That wasn't the case with the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ. We found noise levels to be minimal, brightness to be fairly adequate and sharpness to be spot on in all three of these images. The shot of the station exhibits wonderful detail along the bricks and the lights in the distance reverberate with a majestic flare. There's a little noise in the sky above the tracks in the second image, but overall the exposure is fantastic based on how dark it really was out there that night. We set the shutter speed manually to 2 seconds, but we could have opened it up even further to let more light in. Sharpness is great along the Macy's building and the light in the upper right hand corner of the image exhibits that same magic we saw in the lights of the first image. What a great performance.
Candle Test – Program AE
Candle Test – Night Mode
In extreme low light, the Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ has a bit of a time staying focused and keeping the noise down. In night mode, the ISO is cranked and noise skyrockets, but the exposure is much better. Still, we could have used more detail here overall, and a tripod will greatly improve the clarity of your images. These are not terrible images, but shooting environments with next to no light will require some photographic finagling in order to get the most out of the Stylus SP-565UZ.
Price and availability
The Olympus Stylus SP-565UZ will start selling for $400 () in October 2008.
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