Olympus SP-510UZ User Reviews October 30th, 2006 | by David Elrich
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Average user rating from 19 users |
A good camera to learn on
by David on Jun 30th, 2008 at 3:27 PM:
General summary:
I bought this camera so I could start to see if it would be worth the time and money to invest the money and time into a DSLR. The short answer is this camera definitely helped me get there.
To the Point and Shoot Crowd:
If you want to just point and shoot and get great pictures, this is not the camera for you. All of the auto settings will jack up the ISO, even in full bright day light. You will get tons of noise, to the point that you will suddenly become an impressionist painter. The colors tend to be washed, and the light sensor thinks that all photos must be bright to be good.
For the pro-consumer:
This is a great camera to learn about aperture, shutter speed, ISO settings, and to transition into getting a pro camera.
Set the thing to Manual and never look back. Spend lots of time tinkering with settings, experimenting with lighting, color, and you will learn that in fact this is a very capable camera. The learning curve will be a bit steep, but well worth it.
You have to get over the fact that you will need to take several shots to get "just the right picture", but you will be happy with the result. Also, don't be afraid of the flash. You can do a lot with the ambient light if you have a steady hand, and that's really wonderful, but the flash is just fine indoors (and even outdoors)
General conclusion:
I am happy with this camera, but it is a love hate relationship. That being said, it has made me a better photographer, and has more than earned its keep. I've taken probably three thousand photos with it, with a .333 batting average (if you know what I mean)
Battery life is good, but it takes four freaking' AA batteries, so it should have a long life.
If you really want to move forward in your photography this won't be your last camera, but you will love it. Like an endearing wealthy Mother-in-law that wrote you into her will for weeding her garden.
Selling on Olympus name but camera made very cheaply
by Andrew Field on May 5th, 2008 at 2:30 PM:
Feel cheated poor quality camera over priced xd card internal memory poor does not even have rechargable battry olympus try and get you to subscribe to their magazine via coupon in box also want you to purchase extra softwear to work with computer this camera softwear also in conflict with other programs witch came with my camera phone and photo softwear with my scanner (again poor) camera is over priced looks and feals cheap the battry dont last long and the battry flap on camera feable the usb lead from camera also difficult to attach overall dont buy over priced paying for name but build quality and photo quality poor cameras that are cheaper come with better features quality rechargable battries and memory pictures are yellowish do not buy sorry to sound negative but was purchased by girlfreind because man in shop said good camera? shop would not let item be returned warning to other people looking for cameras do your home work camera at aldi supermarket better value or pay little more and get memory and rechargable battries and softwear dont buy olympus try hitachi ,soney ,richo
hope this helps some one from same mistake do not buy olympus
Use M and A/S for better quality
by Dhaval on Apr 28th, 2008 at 1:09 PM:
Hello, I experienced that It is very important to understand and learn its Manual adjustments of Aperture (Focus), Shutter speed and Exposure.
This will enhance the picture quality too much higher level than the Auto mode even in night or even under flouroscent lights.
Olympus gives superb result and it has almost all the features for addicts of photography.
Excellent
by Chris Russell on Mar 4th, 2008 at 10:11 AM:
I bought a second hand sp-510uz for a massive £76.01 and I am extremely happy with this camera, it has all you need for good quality pictures and TV quality video recording, I found a noise reduction button on my 510 and switched it on, all my pictures have been very sharp, full of color, I have also had no problems with focus...for me this camera, and the second hand price of £76.01 is money well spent, I rate this camera 100%.
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Good learner camera, but noisy over ISO 100
by Nate on Sep 6th, 2009 at 7:17 PM: