We tested the lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths, and with the apertures wide open. The crops are taken from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

Like the other cameras tested here, the Olympus SP-550UZ exhibits coloured fringing in its extreme corners when photographing high contrast subjects. This can be more noticeable than its rivals in real life examples though as illustrated in our Gallery page.

To measure and compare the Olympus SP-550UZ’s macro performance we photographed a custom chart using it and a number of rival models.

Each camera was positioned at a distance and set to a focal length which delivered the maximum possible reproduction.

The dark lines are 10mm apart and the result is not cropped. Smaller areas are preferred in this test. The image left was taken with the Olympus SP-550UZ.

The Olympus SP-550UZ offers two macro modes and the result above was taken in Super Macro which can focus as close as 1cm. While it is possible to focus this close to your subject with the SP-550UZ, it’s very difficult to do so without casting a shadow – so the result above is the best we could manage, although it was possible to get a fraction closer still. Either way, we captured an area measuring just 32x24mm which is better than any of the other cameras tested, although the Canon G7 arguably has identical capabilities. It’s an impressive result for the Olympus though, considering its lens also delivers a massive 18x optical range from wide angle to serious telephoto.