The competition is getter tighter with Olympus now having released an
improved SP-550, namely the SP-560 UZ. The new model features a larger CCD,
a higher relolution of 8.0 megapixels, the same 18x optical zoom but with
the larger CCD now equivalent to 27-486 mm on a 35 mm camera, Face Detection
Technology to quarantee the capture of sharper and more accurately exposed
faces, Shadow Adjustment Technology to ensure that shadowy areas are
brightened, a five frames pre-capture mode,  BrightCapture Technology which
works to brighten both images and movies, a Smile Shot scene mode which can
detect when a subject smiles and automatically releases the shutter, a more
powerful popup flash, a 47 MB internal memory, and TruePic III image
processor for faster mimage handling and higher image quality.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082309olysp560uz.asp

Maybe this is the camera that Oly was working with last year, but they
decided to release an unfinished product, the SP-550, just to be the first
with an 18X optical zoom?

/Per