OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS SZ-12 14MP Digital Camera with 24x Wide-Angle Zoom (Black) (Old Model)

With 24x OPTICAL zoom and more digital if your that brave plus dual image stabilization this thing takes pretty amazing pictures at up to 14mp. I photograph birds and enjoy the Program mode set to "HI1" that shoots four 5 mp shots per second till the built in memory is full (around 60 shots or so) then it reveals it's one somewhat frustrating flaw in that while it is writing info to the SD card you cannot take pictures. Another flaw is the vertical line that appears on video when you get the sun in frame on a snowy bright day. It overloads the CCD or something and you get a vertical white line. So....don't do that. It has only happened to me when taking video of sledding on a sunny winter day. Otherwise you can select "scene" and beach or snow and it clamps down on the brightness to produce first class photos. It has many built in "scenes" it does good 3D and great panoramic which is super user friendly. It shoot s 720p mono audio video. One annoyance is that the mic pics up the image stabilizing as it moves both an inner lens and the ccd itself (hence dual stabilization) so you hear a flutter on video when you are shooting video in a quiet place. However, you can always turn the sound off and in any venue like a game or choir concert you'll never hear it on the video (which is very smooth and steady even in semi shaky hands). This is my second SZ-12. The first was damaged when sent out with family to document an outing and they run the battery dead and tried to push the lens shut. DON'T DO THAT. derrr. In regard to the battery it is robust and lasts a LONG time on a single charge. I'm guessing you can shoot an hour of video on a single charge. Extra batteries are not hard to find nor expensive. I got a second thinking I'd need it with a charger for a reasonable price on line. I've never run the thing dry on my own. I think those I lent my last one too left it on between taking pics and the auto focus and very bright large screen may have run it down. Now that I think back it wasn't fully charged when they took it.This camera is the only one in the price range that has over 20x optical zoom. The digital zoom has come a long way since the blocky days of 500x digital zoom on 8mm video cameras. I took some of the moon and people on fb were asking me what kind of camera I took it with. I set it to "night scene" and went full digital zoom, leaned against a tree and slowly squeezed off a couple and it came out really well including craters and the works all with maxed out optical and digital zoom. I don't use digital generally. 24x is plenty anyhow.I've owned a pretty nice SLR 35mm with 305mm lens and lots of add ons. This outperforms that in both speed and quality.I recommend it highly. But you can't have mine.

Nice compact size and I love the finger grip on the front on the right hand side. I have taken about 40 pic's with it indoors and outdoors. The pic's are very,very good and being a passenger in my roomates truck taking pic's going down the road,it stops the movement very well. I've seen a few other reviews on here that say their pic's don't turn out good and their blurry and I'm pretty sure it's just a case of not having it set on the right settings. I have taken pic's for over 30 years and the first good camera I had was the old time 35mm Film SLR Cannon AE1 Camera with interchangable lenses back in 1980 and it's all about learning the right settings for the conditions. This is an awesome little camera ! The zoom is great !------------------------------------------------------------------UpDate : Well finally got outside and the one thing I have noticed about the zoom is that anywhere past 20x when taking pictures of birds,rabbits ect it come's out blurry. When you look at the picture it looks ok,but when you zoom in you can see the blur. This was a major disapointment to me as I love to take animal pictures. :( ..... I tried all different setting and no matter what the blur is still there. However, if you just like regular shots and don't go past 20x then it's not bad...................................................So needless to say I'm going to be getting a different camera. Have seen good reviews on the Nikon Coolpix L820 16 MP Digital Camera with 30x Zoom. It's a fairly small camera which is what I'm looking for, so going to be getting one to see.

This camera is an outstanding value. Takes great quality pictures, is reasonably quick, has a fantastic optical zoom, and it auto-detects whether or not the flash is in the "working" position, which is a great convenience (so no fumbling through menus to disable/enable the flash). The video is great too, if you honestly want something higher quality than 720p then you'd probably want a better audio input than any camera of this size would offer anyway. I've had it about a year or so, and it's easily the best point-and-shoot that I've ever owned.

I just took this camera to England and Scotland and it was perfect!! Took some wonderful pictures with it! The Zoom is AMAZING!! Can take good pictures of things far away! Very good size as well. Not too bulky and it fit in my camera case and was easy to carry around. The picture quality was great as well! Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good camera with a high zoom and affordable price. The only thing I wish it did was take better pictures of things moving, it came out a bit blurry.

I LOVE this camera!!! I cannot talk more highly about this camera, I bought this camera for my trip to Europe, I had an older Sony Camera which was fine nothing was wrong with it but only 8MP and 3X zoom which is nothing, so I decided to upgrade with this Olympus Camera and I have to say amazing pictures!!!! The only thing I’m not amazed by is that the flash pops up on the top of the camera and I feel like I might eventually brake it. but the zoom is incredibly amazing the pictures are great!!! I also took this camera to a concert and I was sitting so far away I needed Binoculars to see the performer so I brought out my camera and zoomed in and I was able to see the sweat on their faces, that’s how good this zoom is! also it has a nice "fast mode" opinion which was great for my vacation, when we were on tour buses passing by I was able to take several pictures which the bus was moving and get a couple of good shots unlike some people that took one shot and there would be a tree in the way by the time their camera set up again for a another shot the bus had moved to fast.