Olympus XZ1 Review

The Olympus XZ1 is the hottest new camera within the high-end point-and-shoot category. Priced at $500 it takes the place of the Olympus LX-5 because the premier $500 compact, especially for the reason that LX-5 has since dropped to $399. The Olympus XZ1 packs a relatively large sensor, an f/1.8-2.5 lens, 4x optical zoom, and a brilliant 3-inch OLED display. It has just about all the features of Olympus’ PEN E-PL2 digital camera apart from the detached lens. The Olympus XZ1 even has a hot shot and accessory port.

Size is a crucial issue with a point-and-shoot cameras, so it’s something to think about with Olympus XZ1. It’s bigger than the S95 and the LX-5, but smaller than the E-PL2 or E-P2 PEN cameras. So it’s undoubtedly a compact digital camera, however it’s not pants-pocketable, and it’s dangerously close to the size of the Olympus GF1 Micro Four Thirds camera with the pancake lens. Sure, that setup doesn’t have as versatile a lens, but it surely does have an awesome sensor, and it takes wonderful pictures. The XZ-1 comes with a neck strap, but I believe it’s a better size for a wrist strap, which says something good about its dimension/weight. For people that regularly carry bags the size will be not a matter of concern as it’s not large or heavy enough to feel like any more of an addition in a bag than the S95 or similar camera.

When it comes to picture quality the Olympus XZ1 is very good. Pictures are sharp, colours are excellent, and pictures are taken with out hitch thanks to a fast, reliable auto focus. JPGs look nice, RAWs look even better, and the digicam takes superb photos as much as ISO 1600. After that there is more noise but photos are very usable. Macro on the digicam is okay, nothing too special, and whereas 4x optical zoom beats some of the competition it is still not great for the camera’s size.

Whereas image quality is excellent, video quality is sub-par. It’s superb that the Olympus XZ1 can only take as much as 720p but the resulting video isn’t as sharp because it might be and the autofocus isn’t great. It is a digital camera for taking still images.

The software menus are mainly what we’ve seen from Olympus before, which is to say easy to use and relatively intuitive. There are some minor issues, for example, attending to macro/super macro means you have to go into the AF zone control and hit Info, after which select your Macro mode. Things like this are annoying however general the digicam is easy enough to control if you can deal with having DSLR-like power in a camera with out that level of physical controls.

As much as I love shooting with the Olympus XZ1I never forgot that, at $500, it’s an costly camera. This makes minor points seem worse than they are. For example, for $500 I’d prefer to see a lens cap that will keep on the camera. The one the XZ-1 consists of is miserable. I’d additionally like to see a battery charger, not charging using an AC adapter and the USB port. And because the digital camera has an accessory port all the cool extras (like an external audio input) are all paid-for accessories.

So, overall, the Olympus XZ1 is a fantastic camera if you are looking for a serious compact. It’s fun to use and takes great images. That noted, the video needs work, and if you want something this size you should seriously be considering Micro Four Thirds. If you want to stick with a fixed lens, I’d recommended the XZ-1 over the Canon G12 or the LX-5. The S95 has a size and price advantage so that will come down to user preference.