This morning Olympus announced a slew of camera updates for spring, including some updates to its waterproof line and to its smallest pocket cameras. We thought the most interesting addition was to its SP line: the new SP-570 is a 10-megapixel point and shoot with 20x optical zoom. it has all of the other usual bells and whistles as well, including face recognition and dual image stabilization, but the zoom is its real selling point: If you wanted to bring an SLR with you on vacation with a zoom that big it would be seriously heavy. We've used earlier incarnations of this camera and have found it to take great shots in good light but to have an intense delay when it comes to using flash. Hopefully the SP-570 will be a step forward in that direction as well.

The camera will be available in March for $500. If earlier models are any indication, expect some serious discounting soon after that.

Via Olympus