Now that I have the SP-570UZ, I was curious how well the Olympus would do against my digital SLR rig at full telephoto zoom.

The SP-570UZ goes to 520mm at max telephoto, while the Nikon D300 plus Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens can achieve 450mm if you factor in the 1.5x crop of the sensor.

Both cameras were left in Auto everything, maximum JPEG quality.

Below are the resized versions of the quick comparison. Click the photo to see the full-sized, original pictures.

Olympus SP-570UZ, 520mm, 1/640 sec, f/4.5, ISO100:

Nikon D300 + 70-300mm VR, 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO400 (this was an oversight – I should have selected ISO200, the base ISO of the D300):

Comparing full-sized originals, the D300 photo has:

1. A wider angle of view (remember, it’s 450mm on the D300 vs 520mm on the SP-570UZ).
2. More detail. Plus, the detail is more refined, and sharper.
3. Less chromatic aberration (the the D300 has a built-in, automatic lateral CA reduction feature).
4. Less noise, despite being shot at ISO 400.

I guess the conclusion on image quality favors the D300 + 70-300mm VR, wouldn’t you agree? But you won’t find that the D300 images are better by simply looking at the resized versions.

As a side note, I knew this would be the result even before I purchased the SP-570UZ. In terms of outright image quality, the current crop of digicams with their small sensors cannot beat their digital SLR brethren outfitted with good lenses.

But the SP-570UZ excels in other areas, namely its portability and flexibility of its huge zoom range. The image quality might not stand up to extremely close scrutiny but for my purposes, it does a great job.

And hey, the SP-570UZ can shoot movies too, at 26mm or 520mm, and that’s no mean feat.

The D300 can’t shoot movies, and only zooms in the 70 to 300 mm range with the lens used in this comparison.

Just to put things into perspective, here’s how the two will look like side-by-side.

SP-570UZ on the left, Nikon D300 + 70-300mm VR on the right, with the lens cap on:

SP-570UZ on the left, Nikon D300 + 70-300mm VR on the right, with the lens cap off:

Get the D300 rig if you want bragging rights based on the size of the equipment. Or if you really need image quality that can stand up to close inspection.

Here’s the almighty dollar perspective:

1. Olympus SP-570UZ: $405.88 USD
2. Nikon D300, body only: $1,664.99 USD
   Nikon 70-300mm VR lens: $479.00 USD
   Total: $2,143.99 USD

Bottom line, get the equipment that meets your needs at the price point you’ve set.

Here’s one sample shot in this mode. This USB connector is about 1 inch across (click the thumbnail to view the original, unedited version).

That should give you an idea of the magnification you can get in super macro mode.

There are two disadvantages to the super macro mode:

1. You cannot use the popup flash
2. The focal length is fixed. The lens is automatically zoomed to near the wide end.

The first disadvantage can be overcome if you use a non-compatible flash (I haven’t tried using compatible Olympus flash units yet) because, as the manual says, external flash units are fired regardless of what flash mode the SP-570UZ is in.

So, for this shot, I used my Nikon SB-800 flash in A (Automatic) mode, and manually adjusted the ISO, zoom and aperture on the flash by trial and error until I got the exposure I want. The flash head was pointed up at the ceiling to bounce the light.

The SP-570UZ was set in M (Manual) mode, 1/200 sec and f/5.0.

Composing in M mode was a bit difficult as the LCD display would go totally dark to simulate the kind of photo you’d get if you used these settings without a flash. The display will light up briefly while autofocusing so that gives me a brief window of opportunity within which to compose the shot.

To get around the second disadvantage, I think close-up filters / lenses are needed if you want to get huge magnification at a focal length of your choice and don’t want to be so near the subject, skittish insects, for instance.

At this stage, I’m not sure about the use of such close-up accessories as the SP-570UZ does not allow you to screw filters to the front of the lens.

Note: If you’re using a Mac, these images would probably look better in your Safari browser than in Firefox. They do on mine.

For the first picture, I set the SP-570UZ on a Gitzo GT1931 tripod, focused on the left-most pitcher plant and started the 2-second self-timer countdown to take the shot.

Click the thumbnail to view the full-sized, original image.

I haven’t mentioned that I shot in RAW + JPEG 10M (Megapixel) Fine mode, so go here to download the .orf RAW file.

Aperture 2.1 and iPhoto ‘08 on my MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 cannot recognize the RAW file, but Adobe Camera RAW 4.4.1 in Photoshop CS3 can open it.

The next two images were shot in indoors with a Nikon SB-800 flash mounted on the SP-570UZ.

The SB-800 was set on A (Automatic) mode, and I adjusted aperture and ISO to match what was set on the camera.

I also pointed the flash head at the ceiling so that I could bounce the light for a better effect.

The SP-570UZ was put into Manual mode, and I chose ISO 100, a shutter speed or 1/100 sec and f/5.6 for aperture.

The weird thing with the camera was that the LCD would go completely dark at these exposure settings.

If I press the shutter button halfway to autofocus, the display would brighten for a little while before going dark again.

I suppose the camera wanted to let me know that at ISO 100, 1/100 sec and f/5.6, all I would get is a dark frame if I took a shot.

This would be true if I hadn’t used the SB-800, but I guess the camera isn’t able to detect a non-Olympus flash in the hotshoe.

Click the thumbnails to access the resized version (1024 pixels on the longer edge).

My Nikon D300 and Canon XSi / 450D back-to-back:

Boring stuff:

Anyway, I’m pleased as punch that I can use my existing SB-800 flash with the SP-570UZ for better indoor photos.