Olympus Super-Zoom Super Camera SP-570 UZ

This came as a surprise as I thought the super-zoom would stop at 18X optical zoom from Olympus, Fujifilm and Panasonic. However, Olympus' recent announcement of the 10 megapixel super-zoom digital camera SP-570UZ with 20X optical zoom was record-breaking! The range is 26 - 520mm (35mm equivalent). This means slightly wider than the 27mm wide angle from Olympus' previous long zoom and Fujifilm. The telephoto end is also longer than the 504mm sported by the Panasonic DMC-FZ18. Besides that, it uses 4 AA batteries - no more limitations with proprietary batteries! The macro focus distance of just 1cm is also very interesting for such a long zoom.

However, its small sensor at 1/2.33" is not too encouraging (noise issues) and the use of xD memory cards would surely turn off a lot of potential buyers (me included). Let's wait for the reviews to come in, just to be sure.

Photo from Olympus' website here.