The Good Lovely images. High speed photography. Relatively compact. High-res screen.
The Bad Multi-recording is mostly a gimmick. Soft details at 10x-plus.
The Bottom Line With its blend of pleasing photos, quality build, compact body and high-res screen this Olympus is an excellent camera.
Design and features
You could never accuse Olympus' designers of changing for the sake of change. The SZ-31MR features the same compact-ish size and large, almost oversized, hand grip as other SZ-branded models. On the SZ-31MR, the hand grip features a lovely machined-metal finish on the front, while there's a rubber thumb grip at the rear. Southpaws will no doubt look on aghast and wonder when, if ever, a camera company will pander to their dominant hand.
At the front is a large barrel housing the 24x zoom lens that, at its widest, is the equivalent of a 25mm lens in the 35mm world. This feeds into a 16-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor. Along the top, there's a zoom toggle, mode dial, shutter and power buttons, as well as a switch to reveal the pop-up flash. A door on the bottom of the camera hides the SD/SDHC/SDXC card and battery slots, while a tripod mount, which is out of line with the centre of the lens barrel, can also be found on the underside. A flap on the right of the camera hides a USB port and a micro-HDMI port.
