» Olympus SP-510 Ultra Zoom 7.1MP Digital Camera with Digital Image Stabilized 10x Optical Zoom

Olympus SP-510 Ultra Zoom 7.1MP Digital Camera with Digital Image Stabilized 10x Optical Zoom Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Completely frustrated and disappointed with this camera
Comment: We were never able to take a decent picture, the light was deemed on all the pictures. We called support several times and they could not help us to resolve the issue. Olympus support staff were rude and did not help us. We returned the camera. We have bought two Canon cameras. One works beautiful, the other one is brand new and will see. We will not try Olympus again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: camera
Comment: Love this camera...easy to use but enough options for the more advanced users as wel...

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Customer Rating:
Summary: not the camera for most folks
Comment: I have had the Olympus SP-510 UZ for about a year and I totally hate the camera. This is my third Olympus digital camera. My previous camera was a C-5050 which I loved, but it got a scratch on the lens so I got the SP-510.

With the SP-510 you have to avoid any of the auto or program settings, because the camera has a tendency to use the higher ASA ratings to solve low light problems. When it uses ASA ratings over 100 the images look totally crappy with so much jpg noise that you will just end up deleting all of them. So you have to use aperture/shutter or manual to have a chance at a decent picture, unless you are shooting in full sunlight.

The exposure is very often off, so be sure to check the images right away and bracket or reshoot the bad ones.

The white balance seems unreliable, so I end up shooting RAW most of the time so I can more easily correct when the color is totally off.

In short you have to be diligent to get decent pictures. If you are the least bit lazy, the camera will punish you with bad pictures.

There are still two things I like about the camera. One is the supermacro setting that lets you shoot very close bug and flower pictures. Second, the camera is powered by AA batteries, so you never are without power out in the boonies.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sorry, will never buy another Olympus camera
Comment: I have two other digital cameras, small Pentax Optio S and Panasonic DMC-LZ5.

This Olympus was big disappointment to me. Namely it's auto mode. I shoot almost
exclusively in Auto mode. That's not because I did not read the manual or
don't know what various parameters of the shot do. I do. But I auto-shoot because I shoot in haste and do not have time to play with manual parameters and take 20 shots
to select one. I am not photography professional and I am not going to be one.
And this is not professional camera anyway.

So quality of Auto mode picture is very impotant for me.
This camera has very poor decisions embedded in Auto mode automatics.
First, it decides sometimes to raise the ISO to 800 in the daylight conditions.
This results in bad grain and noise, not justified by the daylight conditions.

Another problem with Auto mode is very bad rendition of trees and green.
Rarely, trees and gree are rendered well, but this is rare exception.
Most times, trees and green is rendered dull, dark even in good
sunlight, unattractive. When I compare these colors to the vivid
and bright green trees taken by Panasonic in the same conditions, I
am very disappointed.

Another dissatisfaction is not enough of attributed/tags that
the camera embeds into the JPEG files. It does not report which
white balance mode was chosen.

Next problem is limited sharpness of images. The image as I see it
on the 1280x1024 computer screen is actuall what I'd from a 2MP camera.
When I increase the image x4 time, I almost always se fuzzyness. There is
always lack of details that makes me feel that even though there are 7 milllion
pixels in the sensors, either optics or some other element is limiting
actually shrapness of the image to actuall 2MP of detail.

Another discomfort is that in Auto mode, there is no possibility to
define any parameters like White Balance pr ISO. You cannot change them.
Very strange and uncomfortable decision.

Bottom line: I am never buying another Olympus camera again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Olympus SP-510
Comment: Item was birthday pesent. Was delivered promptly and recipient told us he was satisfied with product.

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