It has raw format.
Olympus Launches Worlds First 18x Optical Zoom Digital Camera: The Sp-550 Uz
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It has raw format.
Clockunder
New Member
I was elated when I saw the news. But after reading the details, I think it is not as fantastic as it first sounded.
500mm on the 35mm format equivalent is nothing to shout about because the longest focal length on this camera is only about 84mm which is still shorter than the Panasonic FZ30/FZ50's 88mm.
The long 500mm (35mm format equivalent) focal length is achieved with a very small sensor 1/2.5" (vs FZ30/FZ50's bigger 1/1.8"). Noise is likely to be a big problem at ISO 800 and above unless we're talking about some break-through image sensor technology employed.
On top of that, the max. aperture at 84mm is only F/4.5 vs Panasonic FZ30/FZ50's bigger F/3.7 at 88mm. That's about 0.86 stops slower.
Even when fully zoomed (500mm on 35mm format equivalent), the shutter speed needed to avoid handshake blur without any image stabiliser is about 1/84 (i.e. 1/actual focal length guideline for many people). In many situations where freezing action is important, 1/125 or faster would already be the necessary shutter speed and so, with or without IS doesn't matter in many such situations. For prosumer cameras, IS is therefore mostly useful for only taking static subjects in low light conditions. A tripod could easily replace the IS in many situations when it's convenient.
At such high crop factor (500/84 = about 6 times), details will suffer tremendously when taking distant subjects. It's like taking the distant subject with a 84mm on lens on a full frame sensor and then crop it to make the frame 6 times smaller so that the distant subject appears so much bigger that it's as if taken with a 500mm lens on the full frame. But 84mm have very much fewer details than using a much longer lens like 500mm or even 200mm. When the subject is far away, the limiting factor to having higher details in the picture is the lens and not in the pixel count on the image sensor.
but you have to admit that due to the crop factor of the smaller sensor, the Olympus's actual focal length of 84mm will capture 500mm in 35mm equivalent, and more importantly in 7.1mp (details/resolution) compared to the FZ30. Not sure why the Panasonic models are suddenly dragged into this thread as comparison, because they are bad examples due to their popular-noisy sensor designs, even at low ISO. Perhaps a better example to demonstrate your points would be Fuji sensors of the same size.
Sooner other like Panasonic, Sony and others are going to come out with the same range. Just wait and see. :lovegrin:
It's ...3200*, 5000* (*approx. 3MP). Think they compress down to 3MP to reduce noise.:bsmilie:
chantyeroop
Senior Member
yep ! and with it's 15fps @ 1.2mp for 20 shots(jpeg), it's good for some "animated" shots.
Hey, at least it starts from 28mm (35mm equiv.). No other bridging camera currently selling on the market does that, and with that kind of range.
You might want to reserve your comment until the actual review is published by reputable reviewer, like, DP Review, DC Resource, etc...
Too technical for me to understand... Well, for the long zoom, there is the IS. No body actually know how effective it is until someone tries out. Hopefully, I can have the opportunity to do that next week!
Additional material: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3697/first-look-olympus-sp-550-uz.html
Too technical for me to understand... Well, for the long zoom, there is the IS. No body actually know how effective it is until someone tries out. Hopefully, I can have the opportunity to do that next week!
Additional material: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3697/first-look-olympus-sp-550-uz.html
How are you going to test it next week? mean it is available for sales??;p
Well, if you are Olympus user or a fan of Olympus you should check this out: http://www.mytikas.org/portal/portal.php
That's no big deal. Panasonic FZ-20 is F2.8 at the 436mm Leica lens some more. And that's in 2004.
Clockunder
New Member
The Panasonic models are used as comparison because they're also prosumer cameras and have the most similar technical specifications as the apparently very long zoom of this new Olympus camera.
The Panasonic FZ50 is 10.4 MP on a 1/1.8" sensor and so, if you crop the picture taken down to the size as if it's taken by a 1/2.5" (the size used in this new Olympus camera), you would get about 6.7 MP and at the longest focal length would be about 535mm on the 35mm format equivalent, even longer than the 500mm on this Olympus.
For those uninitiated, the calculation is as follows :
Pixels on 1/1.8" sensor = 10.4 MP
Size of 1/1.8" sensor = 7.176mm x 5.319mm
Diagonal = squareroot of [(7.176)^2 + (5.319)^2] = 8.932mm
Size of 1/2.5" sensor = 5.76mm x 4.29mm
Diagonal = squareroot of [(5.76)^2 + (4.29)^2] = 7.182mm
Relative length ratio of the 2 sensors = 7.182/8.932 = = 0.804
Relative size ratio = (7.182/8.932)^2 = 0.6465
The no. of pixels on the centre 5.76mm x 4.29mm of the 10.4MP 1/1.8" = 0.6465 x 10.4 = 6.72 MP.
430mm (35mm format equivalent) on the Pansonic FZ50 = 430/0.804 = 535mm
Alternative way of calculating the 35mm format equivalent focal length if the Pansonic FZ50's sensor is 1/2.5" instead of 1/1.8 :
Full frame 35mm format Diagonal = 43.3mm
1/2.5" Diagonal = 7.182mm
Crop factor = 43.3/7.182 = 6.03x
Thefore 88.8mm on 35mm format equivalent on a 1/2.5" sensor = 88.8 x 6.03 = 535mm
Just to show how the Olympus has got 500mm :
The 84mm for the 1/2.5" Olympus on the 35mm format equivalent = 84 x 6.03 = 507mm.
Since the Panasonic FZ30/50 has one of the highest technical specifications on the prosumer platform and people are wowing the technical specs of this new Olympus, it is therefore logical to see how the new Olympus measures up in techical specs against the Panas. The Fuji S6500 or S9500/9600 may be good for comparison too but they're more known for their better noise performance. Since the noise performance of this new Olympus is not known yet, comparison of noise cannot be made yet but can only be inferred from the sensor size and the sensor technology possibly employed.
Clockunder
New Member
Yes, the good thing is that it has a wide 28mm.
The Fuji S6500fd and S9500/9600 also have 28mm on the wide end and 500mm on 35mm format equivalent can be achieved on the S9500 if you do a crop but you get slightly over 5MP only (which is more than sufficient for most prints). However, the longest focal length for Fuji is only 66mm compared to 84mm for this Olympus and so, the Fuji is likely to get less details for distant objects when fully zoomed when compared to this Olympus.
About the noise performance, I made an inference statement from the sensor size and current sensor technology commonly applied. I may be speculative but it's not without logic. So I used the word "likely". It's a reminder not to be overwhelmed by the technical specs and forget to think about the other aspects concerning picture quality.
Clockunder
New Member
Too technical for me to understand... Well, for the long zoom, there is the IS. No body actually know how effective it is until someone tries out. Hopefully, I can have the opportunity to do that next week!
Additional material: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3697/first-look-olympus-sp-550-uz.html
From my personal experience of using prosumer camera, image stabiliser is desirable only in small no. of types of low light situations because the actual focal length even at fully zoomed is not that long (ranges from 60-90mm when fully zoomed for prosumer cameras). In many situations, avoiding motion blur is more important (which 1/60 or faster should be used and even if the IS in this new Olympus works for 3-4 stops, IS is of little use in most of those situations because even if you zoom fully in, the actual focal length is only 66.6mm for Fuji, 71.2mm for Nikon 5700, 84mm for this Olympus and 88.8mm for Pana FZ30/50 and you need to shoot at 1/125 or faster to avoid motion blur anyway). The IS only comes in handy when motion blur is not of concern and shutter speed falls below 1/actual focal length. In many such situations, you can move nearer to your subjects and use a shorter focal length so that the shutter speed is faster than 1/actual focal length. Depth of Field is not a concern in most picture situations for a prosumer camera because you find that there is not very significant difference in DOF between different focal lengths as the shorter focal length used is offset by the nearer shooting distance. The main difference of different focal lengths used to achieve similar composition by moving nearer is the compression in relative distances between subjects in the picture.
There is no doubt that IS is definitely a good thing to have but it's not something which should be a major concern in a prosumer camera unless the person takes mostly a certain type of picture under certain low light conditions where motion blur is not a concern.
Clockunder
New Member
Actual focal length for this camera at 500mm on 35mm format equivalent is about 84mm only.
At F/4.5, physical aperture = 84/4.5 = 18.67mm.
Compare this with Panasonic FZ30/50's F/3.7 at 88.8mm = 88.8/3.7 = 24mm.
Even my 4 year + old model 5MP Nikon 5700 is F/4.2 at 71.2mm is 71.2/4.2 = 16.96mm.
So no big deal at F/4.5 @500mm on this Olympus. All you need to do to get a long focal length on the 35mm format equivalent is to use a tiny image sensor and walah........ it appears to have a much longer lens because you've got a much bigger crop factor.
Nevertheless, Olympus should be commended for their efforts.
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