I really enjoyed using the Olympus SP-550 UZ. It’s comfortable to hold, has plenty of advanced features and takes great shots. Beyond that, you get the world’s first 18x optical zoom in a point and shoot digital camera. The dual image stabilization is a must for such long zoom shots and the system in the Olympus does a good job of handling blur from camera shake. While I normally wouldn’t use the 15fps sequential shooting capability very often, it is also a nice feature. The camera also has great battery life.

As a sports shooter, the SP-550 UZ is a bit of an enigma, hampered by its slow autofocus performance and poor image quality in its 2 high speed drive modes. But no other consumer digicam can come close to its high speed capture rate and the pre-capture mode that renders anticipating the decisive moment a moot point. The SP-550’s high-quality lens can’t be matched either, offering a versatile focal length range that is equally at home in tight interiors and athletic playing fields.

While the Olympus SP-550UZ won’t win any awards for picture quality, it’s an excellent consumer-class camera. For the casual holidaymaker, its flexibility (thanks to its lens), long battery life and punchy out-of-the-camera results make it an ideal choice.

Though not without its share of flaws, the Olympus SP-550UZ is a very good (though not best-in-class) ultra zoom camera. It offers virtually every feature known to man, though some of them aren’t implemented terribly well. Still, if you want a camera with a lot of zoom, and you won’t be using custom white balance very often, then it’s definitely worth a look.

Overall, the Olympus SP-550UZ turns out a good performance and earns its spot among other ultra-zoom cameras. Of course, the reason to get this one is its extreme zoom-range. For this who need the wide-angle but not the telephoto reach, the Fuji Finepix S6000fd is a superior choice.

Ultimately however, after a lot of debate here, we decided that the SP-550UZ has just too many flaws where it matters (image quality and performance) for a $500 camera, and that (though a close call) it fell short of a Recommended rating.

The massive zoom range and impressive image stabilisation make the SP-550UZ a camera with unique capabilities, and at low ISO settings the image quality is very good. Handling, build quality, style and low-light performance are also highlights. The range of manual options and RAW mode will appeal to experienced users, while the beginner-friendly Guide mode is a boon for those keen to learn. However slow focusing and shot-to-shot times, high-ISO image noise and lens distortion at both ends of the zoom range are serious handicaps.

Olympus’ SP-550UZ has great ergonomics, but disappointingly slow performance and soft, noisy images drag it down.