Is Olympus SP-800UZ 30x Zoom Really All that Great?

I had been rocking an Olympus 1030SW for nearly 3 years now, and after coming across some really spectacular photographs by friends online, I became intrigued in purchasing a brand new camera. I wanted a DSLR, and figured I was too new in the game to go from a point and shoot, to a DSLR. I was going to settle on the Olympus Pen, but instead really got excited when I discovered the Olympus SP-800UZ.

You see the SP-800UZ came packed with a 30x zoom lens, and after watching a very limited selection of video on YouTube showing the cameras 30x zoom features I fell in love. I wanted to take gnarly pictures of birds, and I wanted to capture moments from afar. The SP-800UZ seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

I asked for it for my birthday, and after a trip to staples, and 10 minutes waiting for the sales rep to find the camera in the back stock room, the Olympus SP-800UZ was mine.

I already wrote a review on the camera, but I wanted to go further into detail on the zoom, as I am sure many interested consumers want to know how well this megazoom lens works.

First and foremost, the zoom works well, really well in fact, but it definitely has some flaws attached to it that need to be mentioned.

You see, if you think you're going to step outside, and capture great shots of birds, or things in motion, you may as well forget about it. While the SP-800UZ takes great shots in auto mode, once you begin to really zoom in on something, and I mean really zoom in, things get a little more complicated.

My Experience:
 
I have a few bird feeders in my yard, and with summer approaching, I have a slew of really neat fine feathered friends that like to visit my feeders on a daily basis.

My all time favorite are these yellow and black birds that seem to adore my sunflowers. They come daily, and stay for hours.

I was able to capture really wonderful photographs in a 15x zoom setting, but I wanted to get a little closer, and amped it up to 20x. At 20x I was able to capture a bunch of great shots, but not without fault. You see, if I moved even a small amount, the photo came out blurry. If the bird moved even the slightest, the photo also came out blurry.

In order to take perfect shots I realized then, I would need a tripod; a little something, something to keep the camera from moving. The tripod helps, but if the bird moved, the photo was still blurred.

Out of around 40 pictures total, only around 9 or 10 of them were decent enough to really keep. Granted this is something that always happens with anyone looking to get that perfect shot, it could take awhile. However I was a little miffed at how many photos were ruined for no reason at all.

While snapping the shot, in the LCD screen, the photo looked as if it were going to snap perfectly. No blur, no movement, and as soon as I hit the button, and took the shot, the result would be less than perfect in quality.

All in all, the 30x zoom is a neat bragging right, but in order to take really great shots, with high quality results, I found that 30x was not really taking the cake. Granted the camera is still wonderful, I would have liked better quality in the 30x zoom.