Olympus has reclaimed pole position in the ultrazoom race with the announcement of its mind-boggling 12 megapixel, 26x optical (26-676mm) zoom, the SP 590UZ.
The wide-angle-to-super zoom camera was unveiled just three days after Kodak announced its 12 megapixel, 24x optical zoom (26-638mm) Z980; and barely three weeks after Canon released its flagship super zoom camera, the 10 megapixel 20x optical zoom CMOS-sensored PowerShot SX1 IS.
I wonder which camera makers was caught off-guard by Olympus’ latest move but it seems that whichever company which wants to outdo those already in the 20x optical zoom segment, had better get back to the drawing board to match what seemingly a very appealing product — at least on paper, for now — from Olympus.
At a glance, it seem Olympus’ latest offering has all the features a photographer will love to have — macro and super macro modes, RAW capture, wide-angle, long zoom, 10fps sequential shot, 30fps video… and more, like the ability to superimpose images using the multiple exposure mode.
One can also attach a teleconverter to the camera, expanding the reach of an already mind-boggling zoom range. No hot shoe though.
As for Kodak’s new Z980, not much is known at the moment, except that it has a hot shoe, vertical shutter release as well as HD video capture. If you ask me which camera I would buy, I would say I don’t know. It all boils down to image quality. Whichever camera that is able to produce punchy and noiseless images, will be my choice.
But then, I won’t be buying any camera anytime soon as I already have the SX1 IS.
