Olympus SZ-14 review

A big zoom in a slim body makes for a versatile, convenient camera, and Olympus currently holds the record with this 24x zoom model. Its lens and overall shape is shared with the pricier Olympus SZ-31MR, and we’re amazed to find these features in a camera that costs just £165. The 24x zoom speaks for itself, but the design is just as welcome, with a metal body and a raised handgrip that fits securely in the hand.

The SZ14’s buttons are metal too, and the navigation pad doubles as a wheel for adjusting settings. Externally, the only significant difference between the two models is that the SZ-31MR has a mode dial. On the SZ-14, pressing and turning the wheel accesses the various modes, which isn’t too much of an inconvenience.

Inevitably, there are further differences that let this camera sell at such a competitive price. It can’t take photos and videos simultaneously, for instance, and video recording is limited to 720p with mono sound. Unlike many budget cameras, though, it can zoom and focus while recording. Autofocus is responsive and the lens motors made a negligible impact on the soundtrack of our test footage. Optical stabilisation was much worse than on the SZ-31MR, and was wholly incapable of keeping videos steady at the telephoto end of the zoom.

It isn’t the fastest camera around, but we can live with the 1.9-second gap between shots. Continuous mode runs at a pedestrian 1fps, but alternative modes deliver 5-megapixel shots at 5.4fps or 3-megapixel shots at 10fps.

It’s reasonably quick to adjust settings thanks both to the wheel, and shortcuts to commonly used functions which appear down the side of the screen. We could do without the multiple previews, though. When adjusting the exposure compensation or white balance, three preview images appear in a row showing how the various settings compare with each other. It isn’t much of a revelation, though; once you know that boosting the exposure compensation makes the image brighter, you don’t need to be reminded. The only lasting effect is that the menus become sluggish as these multiple previews are displayed.

Heavy noise reduction has only been partially successful here, and the results are far from flattering – click to enlarge

It seems that the main cost-cutting measure has been the choice of sensor. This 14-megapixel CCD can’t begin to compete with the more sophisticated sensors in pricier rival cameras when it comes to noise levels. In our indoor tests, it resorted to excessively slow shutter speeds in an effort to avoid fast ISO speeds, but often the result was photos that were both noisy and blurred.

It’s not pixel-sharp at the full zoom extension, but the enormous 24x range gives huge versatility for framing shots – click to enlarge

It coped with our outdoor tests much better. Although the lens’s sharpness suffered at the telephoto end of the zoom, the huge zoom range balanced things out. However, telephoto zoom settings require faster shutter speeds to avoid camera shake, and that meant that the ISO speed had to be raised once again in anything but direct sunlight. By ISO 200, the sensor’s noisy output – and the resulting noise reduction – was taking its toll on details.

Packing a 24x zoom into an elegant camera at such a low price is a fine achievement, but the SZ-14’s sensor ultimately lets it down. We’d rather spend a little more and buy the Fujifilm Finepix F660EXR.