Olympus SP-550UZ shoots from afar

There is a new champion in the long-zoom camera category at PMA ’07 where new releases are concerned, and the crown goes to the Olympus SP-550UZ. The UZ stands for Ultra Zoom, boasting an optical zoom of up to a stunning 18x! This is a vast improvement over the 10x zoom that is offered by its rivals Fujifilm, Kodak, and Panasonic. The SP-550UZ enables you to shoot in automatic or manual modes, featuring a burst rate of up to 15fps to capture those special moments when you least expect to, a 2.5″ LCD display, an electronic viewfinder, and dual image stabilization. The drawback would be the $499 price tag that could be rather steep for an aspiring shutterbug.