Olympus XZ-1 February 2011

The Olympus XZ-1 is Olympus' first compact bridge camera. Compact bridge cameras feature a host of manual controls, but are considerably smaller than digital SLRs.

Of course, you can't change the lens on a compact bridge camera like you can on a digital SLR, but the use of the manual controls on a bridge can give you pictures that are almost as good as a digital SLR with its bundled kit lens, and are certainly better than most compact cameras.

10Mp sensor and 1.8f lens

Test shot on Olympus XZ-1 using Dramatic Tone

The XZ-1 has a 10Mp sensor and a lens that has an aperture of 1.8 at its widest setting. This large aperture will allow more light through to the sensor, which is handy when taking shots in low light conditions. It can also introduce a nice depth-of-field to photographs, by blurring the background - a feature that can look particularly nice in portraits.

The Olympus XZ-1 has the manual controls that you'd expect from a compact bridge camera, including shutter speed and aperture priority modes and manual focus. The settings are controlled through a ring that surrounds the lens barrel, which is quite nice to use.

Full manual control

In full manual mode, however, when you need to control both the shutter speed and aperture, you need to press a button to change which exposure setting the lens ring controls. This is common on most compact bridge cameras, while digital SLRs usually have two dedicated dials to control the exposure settings.

On the subject of the lens, one thing that we found a little frustrating was the lens cap, which is very easy to knock off when the camera is in your jacket pocket or your bag. This leaves the XZ-1's lens susceptible to scratches. It shouldn't prove to be a problem if you have a camera case that fits the XZ-1, however.

3-inch OLED screen

The camera has an 3-inch OLED screen on the rear, which looks terrific. However a viewfinder would be a welcome addition to the camera's specs list. An electronic viewfinder can be attached to a mount on the top, however one isn't included in the box.

Test shot on Olympus XZ-1 using iAuto

Beyond the manual controls is the iAuto mode for quick and easy shooting without manual interference. There are then a series of scene modes, including portrait, pets and fireworks. The XZ-1 also has a documents scene mode for snapping text on pages, and an underwater scene mode - although this should only be used in conjunction with the separately available underwater case.

Olympus Art Filters - including Dramatic Tone

In addition to the scene modes are the Art Filters. We've seen these surfacing on a number of Olympus cameras in the past couple of years, but new to the Olympus XZ-1 is the Dramatic Tone filter. This introduces a little graininess into the image and adjusts the contrast to add drama to the picture. You can see the difference between the two images published on this page. The top photograph is taken from the window using the dramatic tone setting, while the bottom image is taken using the iAuto setting.

A number of settings, including the ISO and white balance can be accessed quickly by pressing the OK button - rather than having to access them through the menus. Handily, the white balance presets have colour temperatures beside them, which might aid some users in developing their photography skills.

HD video recording at 720p

The Olympus XZ-1 shoots HD video at 720p resolution and 30 frames per second. The Art Filters can be applied to the video clips, however if you toggle between settings when in video mode, you then jump back to still photography mode and have to re-access the video shooting mode. It's easy enough as there's a direct button, but it's one extra step in the process. The optical zoom can be used during recording, and it's smooth and quiet.

The XZ-1 has a 28mm wide lens and a 4x optical zoom, which therefore extends to 112mm. It's capable of shooting in jpeg and the more versatile RAW formats, but only one or the other rather than both at once.

Summary

While it's clearly a compact bridge camera it's unlikely to compete in terms of functionality with the Canon PowerShot G12 or the Nikon P7000 - as it lacks some of the more advanced settings that those models offer. In terms of specs, it gives the Samsung EX-1 a run for its money and is also similar in style. It also resembles the Panasonic LX5 compact bridge, but being slightly more compact does result in the buttons and dials being slightly more fiddly to use.

But features are only part of the picture, as it's image quality that's the most important aspect of any digital camera. Our first impression of the XZ-1 is that it takes nice shots with accurate colours, but we'll reserve our full comparative judgment until we put it through its paces under lab-conditions.

Related content:

• Bridge camera reviews
• Compact camera reviews
• Digital SLR reviews
• Cameras at CES 2011