My Next Camera - SP-550 UZ

My kids tease me about how many cameras I have and darn if I'm not going to get another one! It's the SP-550 UZ and it's awesome sounding.

Far and wide, the world's most powerful ultra zoom. Capture the moment, and capture the action, with the world's most powerful ultra zoom — the 7.1 megapixel SP-550 UZ. Its new 18x wide-angle super-telephoto zoom lens gets you closer to your subject than any other compact digital camera on the market. Dual Image Stabilization eliminates blur. And with high-speed sequential shooting and new Pre-Capture technology, you'll capture anything that moves. Even shoot in low light without a flash, thanks to Bright Capture Technology, and it's easy to preview, shoot and share with the large 2.5" high-resolution LCD.

15FPS & PRE-CAPTURE.
With a burst rate of up to 15fps, you can freeze moments in time to get the shot you want. And the new Pre-Capture technology works as soon as the focus is locked, it automatically archives five frames in the camera's buffer memory prior to the shutter release. You'll capture the perfect shot even if your reaction time is slow.

Its got an electronic viewfinder - that's important to me. I hate the cameras that you view with the LCD screen. It just doesn't seem right to NOT have a viewfinder to look through. I've been peering through viewfinders since my Kodak Brownie days and I don't like to change. It's far easier for me to frame the shot I want with a viewfinder too.

Shooting Modes 30 Shooting Modes: Auto, Program Auto, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, My Modes, GUIDE, Scene Presets (Portrait, Landscape, Landscape & Portrait, Night Scene, Night & Portrait, Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self-Portrait, Available Light Portrait, Sunset, Fireworks, Cuisine, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select1, Shoot & Select2, Beach, Snow, Underwater Wide1, Underwater Wide2, Underwater Macro), Movie.

I think the movie mode is pretty lame since you can't use the k-kewl zoom capabilities and it's got other severe limitations, but that's not a bigee with me anyway. I'd got a couple of "movie cameras" if I feel the need to record movement. I like the idea of the "Self-Portrait" because I like to take pictures of ME! I never say no and I'm always available for a photo shoot. (It's a wonder my ego fits inside the viewfinder, huh?).

The next best part is that the power supply is a lovely 4 AA Batteries! My one big gripe about my "best" camera is that its got priority power and I've got to make sure and charge it before hand or run the risk of being you-know-what out of luck.

Here's the other cool parts:

Size 4.6” W x 3.1” H x 3.1” D (116mm x 78.5mm x 78mm)
Weight 12.9oz. (365g) without batteries and media card

I like it that it uses the x-D PictureCard too since I've got a couple of 1 meggers.

The retail of this brand new puppy is $499.99, but I won't pay that. I'll do some comparison shopping for the best price. This camera will join my bevy of other Olympus beauties...

Olympus Camedia D-340R 1.2 Megapixel Non-Zoom
Olympus Camedia D-490Zoom 1.9 Megapixel 3x Zoom
Olympus Camedia C-740 UltraZoom 3.2 Megapixel 10x Zoom
Olympus E-500 (Evolt) with 8.0 Megapixel 3x Zoom
Olympus FE-140 with 6.0 Megapixel

DPReview has a review on it here, but they don't like Olympus as a rule. In fact a lot of the "experts" don't encourage people to buy Olympus and that's a shame in my humble opinion. I'm not a camera whiz, for sure, I mostly stick to Point and Shoot mode, but Olympus makes great cameras with features that *I* want. Plus I like it that I can use the same picture media cards in almost all the cameras.

Check out one of the best if not THE best sites for Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Olympus cameras!