This is my preliminary review for the Olympus XZ-1, which arrived at my house this afternoon. I will update as necessary.

Over the last two weeks, I have ordered, and returned, two other cameras: the Fujifilm HS20EXR, and the Panasonic LX5. Neither one of them really satisfied me in terms of a total package. The build quality (at least on my copy) of the HS20 was suspect, and worried me a bit. The RAW processing time was quite slow, and I guess I just didn't like the overall feel of it. The Panasonic, despite all the rave reviews, did not satisfy in terms of IQ. Color blotching crept in far too early (even as early as ISO 200) for my taste, and by ISO 400 it was unbearable. The Jpeg processing on the LX5 wasn't great, either. So I finally decided to order the Olympus after much reading and staring at sample images on the internet, though I was becoming skeptical it would be able to satisfy me. At least so far, I was wrong.

The Olympus XZ-1 is a marvel of... Read more

My girlfriend and I were tired of carrying all the DSLR gear with us whenever we go somewhere, so we started looking for a lighter alternative. After reading some reviews and comparisons online (dpreview.com is a great source for that) we decided to buy Olympus XZ-1.

Pros:
- It has a bright f/1.8 lens which is pretty good at low-light situations (or just taking shallow pictures)
- The screen has live view where you can see the depth of field in Aperture mode before taking the photo
- OLED screen is bright enough to see in day light. It also isn't that power-hungry.
- The big sensor can capture the subject in great details.
- Anti-shake mechanism works pretty well. I tested 1/40, 1/25, even 1 second exposures which turned out better than I expected. With my DLSR's anti-shake off, those pics would be more blurry.
- Charges through USB (this may be a con for you if you use card readers) simply keep your camera plugged in to your computer after... Read more

I was very much looking forward to this XZ-1 for a long time. Seemed to have the BEST of all the similar cameras in this category, put into ONE camera. I have owned the Canon S90, Samsung TL-500, and STILL own the LX5. All of these cameras are rather good and certainly way better than an average point and shoot, especially if you want a lot of control over the camera.

The XZ-1 does have a rather amazing lens..in that it is very fast(bright) throughout it's entire range..impressive. It is true I found that being able to shoot with the 1.8 aperture in doors..I did not have to use a very high iso, yet the shutter speed was indeed faster than my LX5 with same settings for example.

Faster shutter speed did result in mostly really good indoor pictures without the usual slow shutter blurriness, THOUGH all pics indoors in even rather good light tended to be a bit dark oddly enough until I cranked up exposure compensation.
The image stabilization on the XZ-1 seems... Read more