OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS SZ-12 14MP Digital Camera with 24x Wide-Angle Zoom (Black) (Old Model)

With 24x OPTICAL zoom and more digital if your that brave plus dual image stabilization this thing takes pretty amazing pictures at up to 14mp. I photograph birds and enjoy the Program mode set to "HI1" that shoots four 5 mp shots per second till the built in memory is full (around 60 shots or so) then it reveals it's one somewhat frustrating flaw in that while it is writing info to the SD card you cannot take pictures. Another flaw is the vertical line that appears on video when you get the sun in frame on a snowy bright day. It overloads the CCD or something and you get a vertical white line. So....don't do that. It has only happened to me when taking video of sledding on a sunny winter day. Otherwise you can select "scene" and beach or snow and it clamps down on the brightness to produce first class photos. It has many built in "scenes" it does good 3D and great panoramic which is super user friendly. It shoot s 720p mono audio video. One annoyance is that the mic pics up the image stabilizing as it moves both an inner lens and the ccd itself (hence dual stabilization) so you hear a flutter on video when you are shooting video in a quiet place. However, you can always turn the sound off and in any venue like a game or choir concert you'll never hear it on the video (which is very smooth and steady even in semi shaky hands). This is my second SZ-12. The first was damaged when sent out with family to document an outing and they run the battery dead and tried to push the lens shut. DON'T DO THAT. derrr. In regard to the battery it is robust and lasts a LONG time on a single charge. I'm guessing you can shoot an hour of video on a single charge. Extra batteries are not hard to find nor expensive. I got a second thinking I'd need it with a charger for a reasonable price on line. I've never run the thing dry on my own. I think those I lent my last one too left it on between taking pics and the auto focus and very bright large screen may have run it down. Now that I think back it wasn't fully charged when they took it.This camera is the only one in the price range that has over 20x optical zoom. The digital zoom has come a long way since the blocky days of 500x digital zoom on 8mm video cameras. I took some of the moon and people on fb were asking me what kind of camera I took it with. I set it to "night scene" and went full digital zoom, leaned against a tree and slowly squeezed off a couple and it came out really well including craters and the works all with maxed out optical and digital zoom. I don't use digital generally. 24x is plenty anyhow.I've owned a pretty nice SLR 35mm with 305mm lens and lots of add ons. This outperforms that in both speed and quality.I recommend it highly. But you can't have mine.

Nice compact size and I love the finger grip on the front on the right hand side. I have taken about 40 pic's with it indoors and outdoors. The pic's are very,very good and being a passenger in my roomates truck taking pic's going down the road,it stops the movement very well. I've seen a few other reviews on here that say their pic's don't turn out good and their blurry and I'm pretty sure it's just a case of not having it set on the right settings. I have taken pic's for over 30 years and the first good camera I had was the old time 35mm Film SLR Cannon AE1 Camera with interchangable lenses back in 1980 and it's all about learning the right settings for the conditions. This is an awesome little camera ! The zoom is great !------------------------------------------------------------------UpDate : Well finally got outside and the one thing I have noticed about the zoom is that anywhere past 20x when taking pictures of birds,rabbits ect it come's out blurry. When you look at the picture it looks ok,but when you zoom in you can see the blur. This was a major disapointment to me as I love to take animal pictures. :( ..... I tried all different setting and no matter what the blur is still there. However, if you just like regular shots and don't go past 20x then it's not bad...................................................So needless to say I'm going to be getting a different camera. Have seen good reviews on the Nikon Coolpix L820 16 MP Digital Camera with 30x Zoom. It's a fairly small camera which is what I'm looking for, so going to be getting one to see.

I ordered one of these from HSN (SZ-11) in 2011 for my son and daughter-in-law. Last summer, I went on a walking tour of Tuscany (fabulous, in case you ever thought about doing something like that), and didn't want to lug my huge Olympus DSLR setup around every day. Since they were living with me at the time, I took their camera.It was so easy to use, set the mode - panaorama, auto, short videos, scenery (zoomed out and in), people, indoor shots of the churches and museums, etc. A few shots were blurry - particularly where we were walking and I was just holding the camera up over my head and clicking away, and some of the indoor low light indoor ZOOMED shots as well (the Pieta :-{ ). The battery held the charge for over two weeks and 1500 shots!!! I was pleasantly surprised by this camera's performance.Not sure if this one comes with the Olympus software, but since my E-620 did, I just plugged in and uploaded using the Olympus Master software, which has editing capabilities as well, so if you don't like the color, balance,filters etc. used during shoot, you can change them once uploaded.The kids moved out a few months ago, so I need a good pocket type camera to keep in my purse. I'm totally sold on all Olympus products and am now ordering one for myself.