Canon SX30 IS, Nikon P500 & Olympus Sp800UZ

Our (September 2011) review is aimed at people who want to get into some wildlife photography, but have a budget of just a few hundred pounds. Whilst these cameras don't produce the quality of images that high end SLRs will, they make a perfect starter and will produce an image quality that is perfectly good for most people; especially if you just publish your images on the web or keep them in digital format.  We have said before, we like to be able to pick up a camera and use it without pouring over long instruction manuals - Turn it on, point and extend the lens and shoot - with just the odd adjustment to the exposure compensation. 

 

Having used all three, to be honest, you won't be disappointed with any of them. They all have slight frustrations but are all capable of taking very good photos (see below for a selection). 

Price
They are all roughly the same, in the £250-£300 bracket. They are about 1 year old now, and at least 2 (Canon & Olympus) will very shortly be superseded by new models, which often drops the price a little more.  

 

Conclusion
Generally, these cameras are capable of more than most people manage to get from them. There are reams of clever settings and potential uses that almost seem incidental. Yes, there are 2-3 very useful settings, and a few that are fun to use with the family for 5-10 minutes, (beautification, black and white drawing, pop art) but most photographers at this level  will care not that the Nikon P500 image size is "Image size (pixels)- 12M [4000 X 3000], 8M [3264 x 2448], 5M [2592 x 1944], 3M [2048 x 1536], 2M [1600 x 1200], 1M [1280 x 960], PC [1024×768], VGA [640 x 480], 3:2 [3984 x 2656], 16:9 (9M) [3968 x 2232], 16:9 (2M) [1920 x 1080], 1:1 [2992 x 2992]".

 

What to buy?  As I said, you should be happy with any of them, but if I had to choose one.....  The Canon is a little heavier, but I think that this is a good thing. It makes it feel more solid, and also makes it easier to hold steady. In general the Canon felt the best - When you pick it up it feels good in the hand (good pick up in cricket bat parlance). The Olympus was the easiest to use - given our dislike of instruction booklets, and also, cleverly, can also be used one handed (right probably) which is very useful if you are holding onto the side of a jeep, a dog, a small child or if you only have 1 hand. The Nikon has, as far as we could tell, the most advanced electronics, so if you are into the more technical side, Nikon is good, but I don't think they have put quite so much work into the user friendly side. 

 

To buy from Amazon