Since buying my first DSLR several years ago, I noticed that I had gotten out of the habit of taking spontaneous photos on hikes. Before my series of DSLRs, I had carried a "pro-sumer" Olympus C-730 10x zoom, and it was easy to pull out and snap photos with, as well as use with manual settings for timed exposures and more careful landscape shots. I had tried carrying a Canon S-400 "Digital Elph" with my DSLRs, but was disappointed with the limitations of the camera, despite the convenience of easily fitting into a pocket.
So I recently upgraded to a new "pro-sumer" camera to fill this niche, and also bring image stabilization, more zoom and larger image files than my old C-730 could deliver. I settled on the Olympus SP-55OUZ, largely because I really like Olympus optics and quality, their long tradition of highly compact designs, and also because it has an outrageous 18x zoom! More on that in a moment.
The 55OUZ is feather light, even with the four AA batteries loaded. So it fits neatly in a belt pouch, and thus is easy to pull out and use on the trail (as opposed to the cumbersome SLR in my backpack). So yes, I will be carrying two cameras from now on, plus that damned tripod! This will help me photograph all those trail signs for the Field Guide! ;-)
Specs: it is a 7.1 megapixel camera with auto and manual focus and exposure features, so fully capable of being mounted on a tripod in lieu of a DSLR, if you are so inclined. The focus is through a digital viewfinder or on an easy-to-read 2.5" LCD monitor. It is also equipped with sensor-shift and digital image stabilization, which makes the very long zoom not only possible, but actually quite amazing.
It also has an ISO range of 50 to 5000 - and that low end is very handy for long exposures, since the big handicap of the very long lens is not being able to really mount filters on this camera. Unlike my earlier Olympus "pro-sumer", the tube accessory for this camera begins to vignette at wide angle settings, so it useless as a full-time lens protector and filter mount. So I'm having to get used to running around with the lens (gasp!) exposed to the world. In other words, like pretty much everyone else does without giving it a second thought..! :-)
There are lots of features, including video with sound and a number of assist and help modes for new photographers. But the bottom line is image quality, of course. So here's a demo that I shot the other day in the Columbia Gorge to show what the camera delivered on a fairly contrasty, colorless day. The first image shows the camera at its widest lens setting, hand-held at approximately 28mm in traditional lens terms:
A generally nice result, with a good balance between highlight and shadow details, given the dubious conditions. Look closely, and you see a box labeled "Image 2" that shows the extent of the next photo, shot at approximately 12x, hand-held with stabilizers on:
As you can see, the results are very nice, despite wavering hands and cold fingers! This would be an amazing amount of zoom on most compact cameras, but as you can see by the area labeled as "Image 3", the zoom is capable of much more. This last image is captured at 18x, or the conventional lens equivalent of 500mm (!), hand-held with image stabilizers on:
This is the real knockout, as you can see. Excellent detail, and an excellent exposure in a contrasty situation, In fact, the most difficult part was hand-holding the camera to capture the right scene. At this magnification, a tripod isn't needed to keep focus if the stabilizers are on, but it would help in framing the image! Truly amazing technology!
Technical note: for these images, I used sharpening to roughly approximate the degree of focus and sharpness evident in the original images. No other Photoshop adjustments, though.
This would be a fine camera for any hiker. The only caution I would note is that it needs a small bag for protection, since the giant lens has a slip-on cap, as opposed to a self-containing clam shell set-up. The cap could easily slip off when hiking, so you'd want to protect the camera from that possibility. I paid about $330 for the camera and xD media card.
Tom