Customer Reviews
Amazing Clarity and Ease of Use 
2008-09-01
The camera is so versatile I'm still in the learning phase. However, I can't find much, if anything, wrong with this camera. It takes amazingly sharp and clear photos. The 20x optical zoom is incredible.
great camera 
2008-09-01
I bought this camera after my husband, bought for me as a gift, a larger camera with interchangable lenses. All I wanted was a camera with good zoom and at least 10 mp. So he had to buy camera #2. I love this camera. We took it to Africa, on Safari, and my camera took distance with quality, and did as well as his too heavy one. I do have some trouble with backlight, and haven't fooled with it enough to correct some minor problems
Fantastic "All-In-One" Camera! 2008-08-31
I have owned this camera for about 5 weeks, and have been quite impressed by its abilities to take everything from wide angle room shots, people close-ups, and even nature shots using the 520 mm (equivalent) telephoto. I even bought the 1.7X telextender, and found it to give very good sharp images with equivalent of about 800 mm! The camera is easy to use; it is fast focusing (slows a bit for dim subjects); and menu is very user-friendly. Only drawbacks: raw files take a bit of time to load; the XD card is not the ideal storage media, and only goes to 2 GB; and cannot be fired as fast as I would like using the higher resolution jpeg's. My bottom line opinion: this is as close to a professional or semi-professional DSLR as you can find in todays market!
A REAL winner 2008-08-30
Reviews are nothing more than an end users opinion and personal experience with a product.
In my opinion and personal experience, Olympus has a winner with the SP-570UZ, with an excellent 20X Optical Zoom, plus a TRUE Super Macro (.04") close up. I use both these features, now with ease and great success. The PANORAMA feature is easy and fun to use. I find the SCENE feature most useful with many helpful options.
I probably qualify as an advanced amateur photographer.
Their Manual however, leaves a lot to be desired, with little to no cross referencing...often leaving you hanging to figure out what to do next. Even with these drawbacks....it was well worth this trial and error method of learning. The body is almost identical to the Olympus E-520 SLR and I learned much more from the E-520's Manual than the SP-570's.
I purchased my SP-570UZ on June 18, 2008. I have saved 1456 of over 2000, mainly nature pictures, taken on vacation in Western North Carolina and another 144 taken at a friends wedding.
My only negative thoughts about this camera is it's manual.
Less Than Expected 
2008-08-29
I bought the Olympus SP570UZ as a gift for someone who is proficient with optical & SLR cameras. The 20 optical being the main feature we've waited for. She has used and tested the camera in several areas; while I am less experienced I want optical. Both of us agree while zoom in/out is jerky and takes time to focus when stops or is blurry until zoom is reached. For me, using the left hand to zoom creates some stabilization problems. There are several issues with this camera I feel for myself, and possibly other less experienced persons; would be too time consuming to learn versus the cost. I purchased this camera & card on Amazon and called to talk with a rep before purchasing to determine what was included in the package....she couldn't tell me, she said they don't get that info, which; I would think is relative to the sale. She did give me a number to Olympus to answer further questions which was can one zoom in/out during video recording....his answer was "yes"....well, you can, the recording is very fuzzy and not stable.
In this instance simply, I do not feel I got what I paid for.
Love this Camera 2008-08-28
Experience the power of 20x zoom with the SP-570 UZ. This compact 10 Megapixel camera does it all - from wide-angle perspectives to breathtaking close ups. Dual Image Stabilization even ensures images come out blur free. And for high-action moments, this model shoots at up to a whopping 13.5 frames per second in 3 Megapixel mode!
Great camera - few shortcomings 2008-08-25
I upgraded from Olympus C-750UZ (4 MP, 10X zoom) to SP-570UZ. Features I wanted were longer zoom, higher MP, zoom ring (selectable as manual focus ring), and continued full manual control. I immediately installed an Olympus website firmware update to smooth the zoom ring operation. I'm using 2 GB M+ xD card which saves large photo files quickly enough. With added experience, the many control buttons/switches/rings seem logical enough.
I was surprised at the difference in the widest zoom settings - the SP-570 takes in much more width for landscapes. It also has a fantastic panorama stitch option I've used in landscape shots.
I'm also impressed with the image stabilization which has allowed hand-held 20X zoom photos of the full moon that were surprisingly clear. I bought the CLA-10 extension tube so I could use the 55mm polarizing filter I used on the C-750. This has resulted in severe vignetting when trying to shoot at the widest zoom setting.
Since most of my photos are taken with at least some manual control, I have not yet sampled all of the scene settings. There are a lot to choose from.
I expected the battery life before recharging to be longer, so I'm hoping some new more powerful rechargables will provide a remedy. I have not yet been able to find a way to change the brightness intensity of the electronic viewfinder which consistently displays the subjects much brighter than the resulting photos. I've learned to compensate for this, but a brightness setting would be better.
All in all, this camera provides great flexibility and user control in a wide variety of photo taking opportunities. I'd definitely recommend it if you want something more than an automatic point and shoot but don't want to carry all the lenses required in a DSLR.
Great camera with some limitations 2008-08-24
I was a big Olympus fan back in the days of film, but switched to other brands when digital came along. I bought my 570UZ for a photo safari to Kenya. I no longer care to haul all the lenses that are necessary to shoot a wide range of sujects with an SLR.
My 570 performed well under most conditions, but fell short in low-light scenarios (too much noise), and resulted in some shots being too soft. In one instance, the camera couldn't focus at all on a patch of flowers with sunlight on them. Still, I got excellent results with most shots, and with 10 megapixel quality, was able to enlarge them to 16X20 without pixelation.
Start-up time is good, response time is good (better with an H card), and the scene modes make it very easy to get the right exposure for a specific condition, such as sunsets, etc. There is even a mode for shooting through glass, which works great at the zoo. For serious photographers, the camera has a hot shoe for attaching an external flash.
All things considered, I would recommend this camera to anyone who doesn't want the expense or hassle of buying or carrying an SRL.
xD card, please? 
2008-08-24
I was tempted to buy this camera until I saw it takes an Olympus xD card...limited to 1GB or 2GB...please, why would I do this? My Pentax K100D digital SLR has a 32GB SDHC card. C'mon Olympus, get with it already. xD cards at 1GB or 2GB are a real deal-breaker.
Jumped from Olympus C-750... 2008-08-23
I have had the C-750 for a few years, and have taken some great shots with it. I do a lot of landscape and wild critter shoots.
Got the Olympus SP-570UZ as a gift last week, and have taken all kinds of shots, LOVE the macro and super macro, great portraits, and zoomed in on Elk across the valley like a charm.
The only thing keeping me from giving this camera a 5 star rate, is the fact that I had a hard time zipping from subject to subject in the small manual, and would dearly love to have the manual on disk that the Olympus C-750 had.
What I ended up doing is just getting the camera out, and pressing buttons, and looking at menus, (when I finally figured out how to get to them) and taking pix 'til I got the hang of it. I feel that there are SO MANY things I am still going to find out from this camera, and I have to say I do LOVE it!Olympus SP-570UZ 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom
