Olympus' popular megazoom inches up to 20x

Olympus SP-565 UZ

(Credit: Olympus Imaging America)

It looks like 20x is the new 18x as Olympus incorporates the f2.8-4.5 26-520mm-equivalent lens from its top-of-the-line SP-570 UZ into the SP-565 UZ, which replaces the popular SP-560 UZ. Otherwise, it's identical to its predecessor. The advantage of this model is that it doesn't have the irritating zoom ring that's on the SP-570, but it also lacks a hot shoe. And I suspect the disappointing performance remains unchanged as well.

The SP-565 UZ is slated to ship in October for $399.99.

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Pictures won't look that good with a lot of distortion. You just can't fit that much zoom with these lenses. Also Sony and Canon's big zoom models suffer from the same problem, still the center of the picture will be OK.