Summary: Amazing Clarity and Ease of Use

Comment: The camera is so versatile I'm still in the learning phase. However, I can't find much, if anything, wrong with this camera. It takes amazingly sharp and clear photos. The 20x optical zoom is incredible.

Summary: great camera

Comment: I bought this camera after my husband, bought for me as a gift, a larger camera with interchangable lenses. All I wanted was a camera with good zoom and at least 10 mp. So he had to buy camera #2. I love this camera. We took it to Africa, on Safari, and my camera took distance with quality, and did as well as his too heavy one. I do have some trouble with backlight, and haven't fooled with it enough to correct some minor problems

Summary: Fantastic "All-In-One" Camera!

Comment: I have owned this camera for about 5 weeks, and have been quite impressed by its abilities to take everything from wide angle room shots, people close-ups, and even nature shots using the 520 mm (equivalent) telephoto. I even bought the 1.7X telextender, and found it to give very good sharp images with equivalent of about 800 mm! The camera is easy to use; it is fast focusing (slows a bit for dim subjects); and menu is very user-friendly. Only drawbacks: raw files take a bit of time to load; the XD card is not the ideal storage media, and only goes to 2 GB; and cannot be fired as fast as I would like using the higher resolution jpeg's. My bottom line opinion: this is as close to a professional or semi-professional DSLR as you can find in todays market!

Summary: A REAL winner

Comment: Reviews are nothing more than an end users opinion and personal experience with a product.
In my opinion and personal experience, Olympus has a winner with the SP-570UZ, with an excellent 20X Optical Zoom, plus a TRUE Super Macro (.04") close up. I use both these features, now with ease and great success. The PANORAMA feature is easy and fun to use. I find the SCENE feature most useful with many helpful options.
I probably qualify as an advanced amateur photographer.

Their Manual however, leaves a lot to be desired, with little to no cross referencing...often leaving you hanging to figure out what to do next. Even with these drawbacks....it was well worth this trial and error method of learning. The body is almost identical to the Olympus E-520 SLR and I learned much more from the E-520's Manual than the SP-570's.
I purchased my SP-570UZ on June 18, 2008. I have saved 1456 of over 2000, mainly nature pictures, taken on vacation in Western North Carolina and another 144 taken at a friends wedding.
My only negative thoughts about this camera is it's manual.

Summary: Less Than Expected

Comment: I bought the Olympus SP570UZ as a gift for someone who is proficient with optical & SLR cameras. The 20 optical being the main feature we've waited for. She has used and tested the camera in several areas; while I am less experienced I want optical. Both of us agree while zoom in/out is jerky and takes time to focus when stops or is blurry until zoom is reached. For me, using the left hand to zoom creates some stabilization problems. There are several issues with this camera I feel for myself, and possibly other less experienced persons; would be too time consuming to learn versus the cost. I purchased this camera & card on Amazon and called to talk with a rep before purchasing to determine what was included in the package....she couldn't tell me, she said they don't get that info, which; I would think is relative to the sale. She did give me a number to Olympus to answer further questions which was can one zoom in/out during video recording....his answer was "yes"....well, you can, the recording is very fuzzy and not stable.
In this instance simply, I do not feel I got what I paid for.