Olympus XZ-10 review

Will this make the ideal pocket snapper?

Olympus XZ-10 review
The new XZ-10 is significantly smaller than its bigger sibling, the XZ-2

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Olympus XZ-10 review

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Colours straight from the Olympus XZ-10 are bright and punchy without going over the top.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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The Olympus XZ-10 copes well with low light situations, producing images that are relatively low in noise without losing too much detail. This image was taken at ISO 800.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Here we can see the camera has struggled a little with the high contrast conditions of an indoor scene, with bright light coming in through the windows, but the dynamic range is still respectable.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Macro focusing is available as close as 1cm away from the subject, leading to creative frame-filling shots.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Both automatic white balance and metering have done a good job of providing a scene that is well exposed and accurately coloured, despite the mixed lighting conditions.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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The Olympus XZ-10 has a 5x optical zoom lens - this is taken at the widest point of the lens.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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This shot is taken at the telephoto end of the zoom optic. While it doesn't have the longest reach of the premium compacts on the market, it's still fairly flexible.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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General purpose metering has really struggled to provide a well exposed image here, being confused by the contrast in the scene.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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In this shot, we changed to spot metering for better results - the sky has been a little overexposed, though.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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The Olympus XZ-10 makes a good pocket camera for use every day, while still enabling you to get creative with shots.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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As with most Olympus cameras, a wide variety of art filters are available and worthy of experimentation. This is the Cross Process effect.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Dramatic Tone is another filter that has been brought across from the range of PEN and OM-D CSC cameras.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Dramatic Tone also has a black and white option, leading to dramatic monochrome shots.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Cross Process can also be customised to suit different needs. This example has red toning, rather than the standard green tint.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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Sepia toning is another art filter that is available.

Olympus XZ-10 review

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You can shoot in a number of different aspect ratios. By default, this is set to 4:3, but 3:2, 16:9 and this 1:1 square crop is also available.

Amy Davies

Amy has been writing about cameras, photography and associated tech since 2009. Amy was once part of the photography testing team for Future Publishing working across TechRadar, Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N Photo and Photography Week. For her photography, she has won awards and has been exhibited. She often partakes in unusual projects - including one intense year where she used a different camera every single day. Amy is currently the Features Editor at Amateur Photographer magazine, and in her increasingly little spare time works across a number of high-profile publications including Wired, Stuff, Digital Camera World, Expert Reviews, and just a little off-tangent, PetsRadar.