Olympus Stylus SH-1 at Amazon is a camera I loved. The sleek, compact design housed the 24x zoom lens and a 5-axis stabilization system. It also had a touch screen that made it easy to select a focus point. The camera's JPG output, which produced images with no texture and looked waxy, was a problem. The SH-2 ($399.95) is the successor to the SH-2.
However, it still displays the same issue. Raw shooting support lets photographers bypass the JPG engine completely. This makes the ZS50 a strong option, however, it is not as good as the Panasonic Lumix DC-ZS50 With a 30-x zoom and Raw capture support, the ZS50 is a little longer, but it's still as affordable as the SH-2.
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Features and Design
The SH-2 (Adorama: $399.99) is pretty average in size when compared with others in its class, although its protruding lens adds some depth. The SH-2 measures 2.5 inches by 4.3 inches by 1.7 inches (HWD), but it feels quite heavy for its size, at 9.6 ounces. Even with the integrated viewfinder, longer lens, and slimmer Panasonic ZS50, it measures 2.5 by 4.4x1.4 inches (8.6 ounces).
The SH-2's metal construction has something to do with its extra weight—the top plate is made from aluminum alloy and is cool to the touch, with a slightly rough, textured feel, and the rest of the body is just as sturdy. Olympus sells the SH-2 with both a silver and black top plate, leatherette as an option.
This lens has a 24-x zoom that covers a field of 25 to 600mm (full frame equivalent), with an aperture variable of f/3-6.9.9. This zoom is one of the shortest in superzoom, as most other cameras within this price bracket are closer to the 30x range. Although the SH-2 has a smaller zoom range than most, 600mm provides enough reach to meet all your needs.
The lens also comes with a 5-axis stabilization that allowed me sharp handheld photos even when I was at max zoom. The SH-2 works well to correct roll when you are making adjustments to your tripod in the studio. It is easy to spot at work. You'll probably want to disable stabilization when working on a tripod—it's easy enough to do via the menu, and you can also set it to only activate during the exposure if you often mix handheld and tripod shooting in your workflow.
The top plate houses the standard controls—a mode dial, zoom rocker, shutter release, and power button—as well as a pop-up flash and stereo microphone. Olympus chose to put logos on top of the camera, which is a shame.
The SH-2 supports full manual shooting—via the M position on the mode dial—but it doesn't support aperture or shutter priority. Compacts are more likely to need the latter, since you will be using the entire lens open at all times. It's also a problematic omission.
Many scene modes are available. Some even allow you to shoot at night. Live Composite is one of the most popular. It captures an image, then looks for light changes, previewing it as it occurs, and so on. This mode is great for photographers who love light painting, using glow sticks and sparklers to create images after the dark.
Astrotographers interested in nightscapes that feature star trails, or anyone else who likes to use bright objects such as glow sticks, will also enjoy it. You can also create collages in camera using the Photo Story mode.
The rear controls feature a dedicated movie button, which is located at an angle right of the thumbrest. There are also standard playback/delete controls and a four way joypad that has a central OK button. You can adjust the exposure compensation and flash settings. The left button activates an overlay menu. The menu offers settings such as white balance, ISO and file size. The SH-2 offers a macro setting. To access this, you will need to change the top dial to the SCN position.
Rear LCD measures 3 inches and is touch-sensitive. The LCD is sharp at 460k dots. You can touch the screen to adjust the focus, move it, or fire off an image with one swipe. You can turn on grid lines if desired to help you with composition, and when you're reviewing photos it's possible to swipe through images, but you can't pinch to zoom in—there are touch-sensitive icons on the screen to zoom in and out of photos during review.
Other cameras of this type, such as the SX710HS (Opens in new window at Office Depot and OfficeMax) or the SX610HS (Opens in new window at Amazon) have sharper displays (922k dots), but don't provide touch support.
Wi-Fi, like most modern cameras is included in the camera. It makes it possible to copy images over to an Android or iOS device (using the free Olympus Image Share app), and also supports geotagging photos and editing images—the same art filters that are available in-camera are available in the app. Remote control is an option. You can control your camera via the app in iAuto or Program mode. The app also allows you to adjust the exposure, white balance and ISO.
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Conclusions and Performance
The SH-2 takes just 1.6 seconds to get started and to shoot superzoom photos. The focus speed of the SH-2 is very slow at wide angles. It locks onto targets quickly and fires a shot in less than 0.05 seconds. It does slow a bit when zoomed all the way in—to about 0.7-second—but that's also a pretty good result when compared with others in this class. It takes the Canon SX710HS about 0.9 seconds to accomplish this same task.
Raw capture doesn't allow continuous shooting, however it's an option for JPGs. The SH-2 can capture 16 photos at 10.4fps. It takes about 3.5 seconds to save all the shots to a memory stick. This is a very short time in which it won't allow you to take photographs. You can also set the SH-2 to take photos at 2.5fps if you do not require that speed.
Imatest was used to test the lens quality on the SH-2. It scores 2,189 lines in a center-weighted sharpness check at its broadest angle and aperture. This is better than what we want in an image: 1,800 lines. The quality of the images are even throughout the entire frame. The edges are slightly soft at 1,584 lines, but this is normal for compact cameras of this size.
It's strong at its zoom of 4x (100mm), showing 2,759 lines. The edges are also excellent quality. The results are much better than those obtained with the Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 (Amazon: $599.98). This camera scores only 1,631 points on our sharpness tests.
Imatest examines sharpness using contrast. Imatest compares black squares to a background of black on a test chart. This doesn't necessarily translate to how the camera treats fine details. The JPG output is similar to the SH-1. It suffers from close inspection. Images appear unnaturally waxy and wash away fine, distinctive textures. Raw captures this.
You can compare the Raw crop to the JPG from the test scene shown in the slideshow. This is done by the JPG engine to reduce image noise. Raw images show fine grain patterns even at the lowest ISO 125 sensitivity. JPG files are cleaner but lack some crispness.
Imatest was used to test how well the JPG engine of my camera handled noise during a standard test. This camera scores a fantastic score of 8.5 percent at ISO 1600. Close inspection of images from the test scene using a calibrated NEC MultiSyncPA271W ($999.00 Amazon) shows some blurring at ISO 1600. The ISO 800 or lower setting produces better images.
Lightroom ($9.99/Month, Adobe) is our preferred Raw converter. However, it does not yet support SH-2. We instead used Iridient Developer to convert the images to TIFF format. The standard +25 sharpening and +25 color noise reduction adjustments Lightroom applies to raw images upon import were applied.
With some cameras shooting in Raw lets you eke a bit more quality out of high ISOs, but with the SH-2 you're getting that benefit starting at ISO 125—just look at the lines in the small trees in our test image in JPG and then in Raw to see the difference. We recommend that you keep your ISO setting below 800 even when using Raw. ISO 1600 can be used in emergency situations, however ISO 3200 or 6400 is too high for the SH-2. The Panasonic ZS50, which has a longer zoom and does well in low light, is the ideal choice.
The 12-megapixel sensor of the Panasonic ZS50 is slightly stronger than its predecessor at ISO 1600. If you want a significant upgrade, you'll have to look at a larger camera, with slightly less zoom and a higher price tag—the Olympus Stylus 1 ($626.00 at Adorama), Panasonic FZ1000 ($897.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), and Sony RX10 ( at Amazon) are all strong performers, but none are pocketable.
QuickTime formats allow for video recording at 1080p60 resolution. The video is sharp and has better texture details than JPG images. Motion is smooth due to the 60fps framerate. The rolling shutter effect is still visible when the camera pans quickly. Also, you can hear the zooming sound on the soundtrack. The focus can be achieved quickly and the stabilization system is excellent at maintaining smooth footage. It's very subtle and only noticeable when the subject is zoomed in close.
The standard micro HDMI port can be found under the flap to attach to an HDTV. There's also a USB port next to it. This is an Olympus camera design which is quite disappointing. The SH-2 ships with a USB cable and an AC adapter—the cable is used to plug into a wall for charging or a computer to download images. You won't have the ability to charge your SH-2 if you don't bring it.
Also, without an SDHC or SDXC card reader, you can't offload images. Olympus should include an additional battery charger so that photographers can charge one battery while still using the other. A standard micro USB port would have been nice, to ensure that you don't lose your Olympus cable while on the road.
The type of photographer that you are will determine whether or not the Olympus Stylus SH-2 is worth your consideration. It's a great camera to use if you like to take photos in Raw format. The image quality is outstanding for its class and the zoom range is large. It's more difficult to recommend if you want JPGs, and don't need to edit photos.
In-camera noise reduction makes photos appear smoother than they are, even when using low ISOs. There is no way to reduce or disable this effect. You can also get the Editor's Choice for this category: the Panasonic ZS50. The camera is a better overall choice and can shoot in JPG and Raw modes. The Canon PowerShot SX600HS at Amazon is an option for those on a tight budget. Although its telephoto range is less, it sells well and comes with a great price.