Olympus SZ-20 and SZ-30: A New Record Breaking Superzoom

In the race to squeeze the most powerful zoom lens into a compact camera, Olympus had initially hedged its bets on two entry-level VR-series cameras and the SZ-10, which has an impressive 18x zoom lens but fairly modest tech specs. The brand, however, has now returned to the race armed with Full HD video, backlit sensors and a new record-breaking 24x zoom lens!


The SZ-10 looks like a kind of mini-bridge camera, and with its 18x (28-504 mm) zoom lens, it's certainly a worthy contender in this year's battle of the superzooms. However, its 14-Megapixel CCD and 720p HD video mode could hold it back since BSI CMOS sensors and Full HD video are becoming pretty much standard in high-end models.

Olympus has therefore come up with two new models, logically called the SZ-20 and SZ-30. Both cameras will use a 16-Megapixel BSI CMOS that's probably the same sensor already seen in Sony's latest models, including the excellent HX7V and HX9V rival superzooms, as well as the Fuji F500 and F550.

This new sensor naturally means that both cameras will have a Full HD video mode. We reckon that they'll also record stereo sound, as you can see two little holes on either side of the lens that look suspiciously like microphones.

Both cameras have a 460,000-dot screen, which isn't quite as good as Sony, Nikon and Ricoh models (all with VGA resolution, or 920,000 dots), but it's still perfectly acceptable.

What's in a Lens?

There are a few differences in design between the SZ-20 and SZ-30: the shutter release button, in particular, is in a different location. The cameras also have different lenses: the SZ-20 has the same 24-300 mm lens as used in the VR-330, while the SZ-30 has a new 25-600 mm lens.

No, that wasn't a typo, Olympus has managed to fit a 24x zoom lens into a compact camera! The zoom race seemed to be slowing down a little, as after 10x then 15x, we've only seen rather timid increases to 16x or 18x ... until now, that is.

This new lens could bring a few problems to the SZ-30, however. First of all, there's no word on how thick the SZ-30 is. However, as you read this we're actually at a presentation event having a go with these new cameras so we'll keep you posted on that front.

The second potential problem is the start-up time. For example, Ricoh has, in the past, managed to make some surprisingly compact lenses by moving one of the lens groups sideways when the camera switches off. Nevertheless, moving this lens group back into position adds an extra stage to the lens deployment process, which in turn slows down the overall start-up time.

The third and most important thing we're wondering is just how good quality the lens will actually be. One thing that's got us worried is the fact that the SZ-30 lens has an aperture of just f/6.9 at 600 mm, making it record breakingly slow. So while on the one hand, it's half an f-stop less than a f/5.6 lens, which is already slow enough, on the other hand, diffraction is likely to make the 16 Megapixels completely ineffective.

Two Image Processors

Another key difference between the two models is that the SZ-30 has a second image processor. It's not used to speed up processing for a faster burst mode like in certain Canon SLRs, but instead allows  the camera to process two things at once. The camera will be able to send information from the sensor to the two processors simultaneously so it can, for example, film Full HD video while simultaneously taking 16-Megapixel photos.

It's not particularly unusual for cameras to be able to take a still shot while filming, but it's usually a still frame taken from the video, limiting the resolution of the photo to 2 Megapixels. Other models interrupt filming to take a photo, which means around a second of video is lost.

Here, in theory, a full resolution photo should be captured on the fly without the video being interrupted in any way.

Fans of the creative functions found in the latest Olympus cameras are sure to like the fact that you can record two videos at once, one with the creative filter of your choice (pinhole, miniature, psychedelic, etc.) and the other with the default settings.

The SZ-20 is likely to launch at a lower price than its main rival, the Casio ZR100. The SZ-30 should sell for somewhere in the region of £300 and could be a very successful model ... so long as our reservations about the lens are proved wrong.

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