Olympus Sz-12 14Mp Digital Camera - Black

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.

before this I had a canon S95 which took awesome pictures, but it eventually broke (twice) in much to short of a time (in my opinion.... and after I babied it) so i decided not to get another camera that expensive. This one is easy to use, takes good pictures for a mom to a 2 year old. Easy to charge (just got back from a week at disney, plugged it in a couple times over night when I charged my phone, no big deal). So far it seems to be holding up. Its nothing that I am super excited about, but the pictures are clear, easy to take, and the camera is functional at a reasonable price. For me that gets 5 stars, but I'm no photographer so if you are looking for something super professional this probably isn't it-- otherwise it works great for a family point & shoot

That is an amazing product and work good

Folks really push Nikon and Canon so I was a little worried about getting Olympus. (My wife liked it) I have had an Olympus dslr in the past and I can't say anything bad about it. Anyway, it is a good little camera.24X zoom: great to have that ability but if you don't know how to use a camera pushed to 24x zoom, then don't bash the camera for it. You are not going to get great results if there isn't a bunch of light at 24x.iauto: when you first turn the camera on, it defaults to P (program) mode which gives you full control over the settings. switch over to iauto and let the software do that for you. If you are buying this camera, you probably are looking for a point and shoot. I read a review where someone complained about bad shots and I think that might be why. The camera will stay there until you change it again.Flash: the flash has to be flipped out manually but this isn't a bad thing. I kind of like it that way. beats trying to find it on a menu when you really want to turn off/on the flash. Just get in the habit of flipping that little switch as it is powering on and you are set.Magic filters: kind of dumb but you have them if you want them. would be great if they were apple iPad filter quality.Video: there is a button for that.... great idea! no fumbling through menus. The quality is good.Display: the pictures seem a little bleached out on the little back screen but when you get them imported into picasa or some other photo management system, they look great.14MP: I played around with the other MP settings on the camera and I really couldn't see any difference between 8 or 14 MP. Granted, all I was doing was zooming in. I wasn't printing any picture.quick: The camera seems quick unless there is low light. in low light, the pictures take longer to shoot because the shutter has to stay open longer to gather enough light. this makes for smeary pics if you have a moving target.. This isn't specific to Olympus, just a note I wanted to throw out there.OverallWe have had the camera for about a week now and I don't have any complaints. A great deal of the technology in Olympus's DSLR's I have found to be available on this camera. you have to get used to their interface but that is to be expected. I will update this review if we have any problems with the camera.