If you are in the market for a point and shoot that has all the utility of a digital SLR with a bevy of lenses, you might want to consider the Olympus SP 565UZ. While it is technically a point and shoot camera, it looks more like an SLR, just a bit smaller. Continuing the trend of incorporating a large zoom range into their cameras, Olympus offers a 20x optical zoom in the SP 565UZ. With an equivalent of a 26-520mm lens you can get in close or snap pictures from a distance. To help keep those shots with the longer lens steady, Olympus has also incorporated a dual image stabilization system. The dual image stabilization is made possible by the combination of Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization. The SP 565UZ doesn’t waste all of this potential with a sub par sensor either. At its heart is a 10 megapixel CCD sensor.

Standout features

• 20x optical zoom
• 10 megapixel sensor
• 33 shooting modes
• Video recording capable
• Dual image stabilization
• RAW image capability

Features

On first glance, you might mistake the Olympus SP 565UZ for an SLR camera. It is designed like an SLR, only smaller. The SP 565UZ offers all of the function of an SLR as well. Choose from a variety of exposure, white balance and focus settings from manual to automatic. The controls are well placed on the camera for easy adjustment while continuing to shoot. Though there is one exception, the SP 565UZ doesn’t have a shutter dial on the front like most SLR cameras. Olympus has built a viewfinder into the camera as well as having placed a zoom toggle around the shutter button for easy operation.

Explore the camera setting and menu options on the 2.5” LCD screen that also comes in handy when reviewing your images. With a whopping 33 shooting modes, the SP 565UZ offers a setting for virtually every scenario. While there are too many to list, some of the more interesting and useful modes are the pre-capture and macro modes. Using the pre-capture mode, the camera can start taking images even before the shutter button is pressed.

The SP-565UZ also offers a pretty good ISO range, up to 1600. While it does offer 3200 and 6400 ISO, it reverts to being a 5 megapixel camera. The camera also offers a fairly impressive shutter speed range of 1/2000 to 15 seconds with a minimum aperture of 2.8 for those poorly lit situations.

Summary of Reviews from Across the Internet

Experts have found little to fault with the SP 565UZ. The camera has good picture clarity, an impressive zoom and quick autofocus. The menu options are easy to use. The few things reviewers have faulted are the plastic tripod socket, which will invariably become stripped, the lack of any real grip on the left side of the camera and a pixelated viewfinder.

Summary

Users have enjoyed the ease of using the SP 565UZ and the good results the camera produces with very little user effort. As with all point and shoots, you have to be careful to notice where the camera is focusing. While most reviewers have liked the automatic setting, some have complained of occasionally blurry images.
 

Take a look at other great Professional DSLR Digital Cameras with TopTenREVIEWS side-by-side comparisons.