Several years ago, if you wanted an ultra zoom camera, there was only one name to know: Olympus. One of their cameras even developed a sort of cult following: the C-2100UZ. Sadly, the cameras that followed weren't nearly as interesting, with their biggest flaw being a lack of image stabilization. Since then, the ultra zoom market has been taken over by the likes of Canon, Panasonic, and Sony. Olympus wants to change all that with the SP-550 Ultra Zoom ($499). On paper, it may have the most impressive specs of any ultra zoom out there. It packs a whopping 18X optical zoom lens (that starts at 28mm no less) into a relatively small body and throws in -- get ready -- image stabilization as well. Instead of using lens-shift image stabilization like most ultra zooms, Olympus used CCD-shift technology to reduce blurry photos. We'll see how well the system works later in the review.



Link: DC Resource