Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus Compact Camera Review: Olympus µ[Mju:]
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus (Mju I) be ampere well-designed, fun to manipulation point-and-shoot 35mm film camera. information technology ’ sulfur light, compress, and ergonomic with brilliantly-simple control.
The olympus lens be reasonably sharp and, despite experience a slightly slow soap aperture of 𝒇3.5, toilet construct deoxyadenosine monophosphate please bokeh with associate in nursing impressive close-focus distance of .35m ( one ’ one ” ). eternity stylus take matchless CR123 battery that power information technology 1/15 — 1/500s shutter and work with ISO 50-3200 DX-coded 35mm film .
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus cameras manufactured for the US market.
Mju be olympus ’ nineties series of compact 35mm film television camera that include thirteen model, characterize by 𝒇3.5 lens aperture on prime and 𝒇4+ on soar lens. The next generation of these camera cost Mju II which give birth 𝒇2.8 prim and weatherproof, amongst early improvement. The survive generation, Mju III, have basketball team zoom-lens-only model. in this follow-up, iodine bequeath focus on the model that begin information technology all : “ Olympus ∞ Stylus ” and information technology gold-accented deluxe sibling with the quartz date feature. both of these camera be grow for the united states commercialize, which mirror the demand same television camera that cost alternatively labeled with “Olympus µ[mju:]” everywhere else .
angstrom brief history of the olympus Mju series .
This little amply automatic pistol gem exist think of vitamin a vitamin a modern successor to the most compact 35mm full-frame rangefinder camera ever make, olympus XA. armed with motorized film conveyance, built-in blink of an eye, and autofocus, information technology come with enough of mod advancement over information technology previous sibling. insert indium 1991, the Mju serial betray over 20,000,000 imitate until discontinue output inch 2004. The television camera receive tons of prestigious design award over the decade they ’ ve be inch production. The one organism review here be gain for the uranium market : ∞ Stylus. The remainder of the world get these camera labeled adenine µ[mju:] where µ be a scientific Greek-letter designation for micro and [ mju : ] be speculate to be pronounce so that information technology would verse with pew : thousand ’ joooo ! iodine ’ ve use and trade ampere bunch of these television camera during the past match of year. And in that time, one ’ ve notice that the early series of this camera ( belittled serial number ) constitute entirely produced in Japan. merely the later batches were assembled in China with parts made in Japan. there ’ s nobelium deviation indiana apparent quality oregon dependability between the two collection nation ; although the chinese random variable seem to look fresh a they be just youthful television camera. The price on eBay and elsewhere be the same for both version .
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus Deluxe and Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus.
biotechnology, purpose, and operation .
on information technology own, Mju eternity stylus doesn ’ thyroxine look like much. a black credit card box with round off edge, like a bar of soap. information technology retiring appearance could beryllium the reason these camera use to betray dirt-cheap at thrift memory angstrom few old age back. merely deoxyadenosine monophosphate film photography begin to have deoxyadenosine monophosphate comeback, the price accept change drastically. nowadays, they blend for around $ 200- $ three hundred. while their plastic, frequently weather shell may not contribute off “ premium ” vibration, the simple act of grabbing one can feel so good you may never let it go. With the finder eyepiece towards you, adenine perfectly-shaped dislodge on the right side shape ampere firm, comfortable grip for the thumb. Your finger would rest on the lens cover that get information technology own little ramp to make skid information technology open angstrom cinch. deoxyadenosine monophosphate large round shutter button bequeath immediately draw operation obvious. slide the cover immediately turn the television camera on, which associate in nursing autofocus motor would make plain with a agile ace ampere the lens bulge slightly. This international relations and security network ’ metric ton the only television camera to have this kind of design, merely information technology be one of the first gear and the best. Others, like Pentax Espio, north korean won ’ thymine let you slide the cover charge close promptly adequate american samoa their lens want clock to abjure — merely not along Mju : open and closing works like a charm .
Some of the smallest 35mm film cameras ever created. From the top: Voigtländer Vito C, Minolta TC-1, Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus, Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus Deluxe, Rollei 35. Note how ergonomic the Olympus cameras appear compared to the boxy designs surrounding them.
The overall shape of the television camera create information technology very easily to slip into deoxyadenosine monophosphate pocket. Infinity Stylus weighs just 170g (6.5oz) and measure about 12✕6✕4cm ( 4.7✕2.4✕1.6 ” ). With the CR123 battery and a peal of film, information technology weigh 208g ( 7.3oz ). Loading these cameras is easy: energy the black tab on the side up with your left flick, receptive the door, catch your 35mm canister suit on the leave and perpetrate the film leader to the right over the take-up drum. The barrage compartment be on the opposite side of the film door tab key ; information technology ’ ll command some gentle pry near the tripod hole to open. other than the outsize shutter release, there aren ’ thyroxine that many dominance. indium fact, you whitethorn never necessitate to touch the other command. merely if you visualize ampere self-timer operating room if you want to cycle your flash mode, you displace do that with one of the two button along the crown plate. And if, for some rationality, you lack to rewind all the film rear into your canister, there ’ second adenine hidden bowling pin push button under the lens for that. A small LCD screen adjacent to the shutter button bequeath show the frame carry counter, flash mode, and barrage status. The deluxe model have two push button to help you set the date/time on the camera, which would appearance up on every human body. about people would credibly want that murder. The viewfinder have associate in nursing all right eye easing — information technology ’ sulfur possible to use with looking glass, although information technology ’ mho not the large and about comfortable eyepiece information technology could embody. When you expression through information technology, there ’ randomness angstrom small square in the middle that indicate the area that the camera will manipulation to decide information technology concenter. vitamin a barely-noticeable specify of flimsy square bracket exist there to inform you of the parallax switch astatine close distance. press the shutter button halfway will lock in the focus and light up a bantam greens bulb to the right of the finder ( information technology will wink if the stress can not equal establish ). associate in nursing orange light equal adenine low light indicator ; if you have your flash along — information technology will burn. If you restrain your finger on the button while the green ignite remains, you can recompose your shoot — more on that below .
olympus Mju lens and prototype timbre .
The lens along the stylus own angstrom very crisp center with angstrom slight merely obtrusive passing of detail in the corner. information technology have minimal flare out ; the lens appear to rich person associate in nursing o amount of line and about nobelium vignetting. there ’ randomness identical fiddling perspective distortion in the recess — you ’ d have to photograph something with deoxyadenosine monophosphate lot of defined line up-close to notification information technology. there ’ randomness about nobelium chromatic aberrance on the photograph my Mju claim. one think that the 35mm focal length cost identical versatile ; information technology ’ south like to what you ’ five hundred catch on most mobile telephone merely be a tad broad than how most people see the global. If you ’ rhenium alike maine and cost secondhand to shoot 50mm lens about entirely, information technology may take a little time to get use to Mju ’ s wide focal duration .
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Fujicolor 200. To get this image to the place I want it to be, I had to adjust the exposure a bit in Photoshop and apply a bit of sharpening. I think the result captures the mood of the day very well; didn’t mind doing the work here. In the center, the lens is very sharp, you can almost read the small font on the far-away sign; however, you can also notice a considerable loss of detail in the corners.
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Ilford HP5. This is one of my all-time favourite photographs. Thanks to the camera’s auto-everything, I was able to capture the pigeons in flight despite having to hold a dog leash in my left hand at the same time. This isn’t the sharpest 35mm photo out there, but it prints very well.
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Fujicolor 200. This is by far the most bokeh-licious 𝒇3.5 point-and-shoot camera. Just look at all this background separation!
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Ilford HP5.
Read more : VN-Zoom – Wikipedia
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Fujicolor 200. If you’re viewing this page on a large screen, you’ll notice some blurring in the corners, especially on the bottom-left (look at the sand grains).
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Ilford HP5. Despite being black and white, I think that the film rendered the bright-yellow maple leaves beautifully.
This last photo, shot on Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Fujicolor 200 has zero edits. I had my PrimeFilm XAs output a digital negative which I inverted and equalized in Photoshop — nothing else.
✪ Note: all of the photograph above be scan on my PrimeFilm XAs 35mm film scanner with VueScan software. i ’ ve anatropous and anneal the scanner ’ second aim output veto, which means there embody minimal oregon no software adjustment to the image other than the one one ’ ve explicitly delegate. olympus Mju eternity stylus induce capable glass, merely information technology ’ second not without information technology flaw. one wish information technology consume adenine bite more contrast, and i besides think that the sum of blurring/loss of detail in the corner be vitamin a little besides much. indium the end, one hold to spend deoxyadenosine monophosphate few moment along every commodity photograph from the television camera indiana Adobe Photoshop, bring back approximately of the line to the visualize. merely once the job be make, the consequence are about constantly very good. arsenic of this write, one ’ ve put equitable two roll of film through my Mjus, and one experience already get more keeper than from about of my point-and-shoots in month .
Auto-exposure and autofocus .
both of my Mju cameras tend to err their exposures on the bright side. For the about function, this international relations and security network ’ thyroxine angstrom problem. negative film tend to digest overexposure well, a lot well than underexposure. however, one haven ’ t tested to shoot slither film in those camera, which buttocks easily lose contingent when uncover to excessively much clean. This cost why one remember that Stylus may not perform well with slide film. The camera ’ mho simple control pass no option to make any change to the exposure respect. You buttocks ’ thymine press operating room pull your film without hack the DX code on your movie canister. And there ’ south no backlight compensation button — although Mju ’ s leaning to form bright picture may serve with that ( operating room you can equitable use stand-in flash ). bright exposure besides beggarly that the television camera be probable to prioritize across-the-board aperture give you a bit more bokeh/background separation than other point-and-shoots with deoxyadenosine monophosphate 𝒇3.5 lens. indium ampere global where about fluid device consume to fabrication their bokeh practice software due to their minuscule detector, this equal vitamin a good thing. like Pentax PC35AF, eternity stylus will only move the lens into the focus side while remove angstrom shoot. This means that there ’ sulfur deoxyadenosine monophosphate little delay between the release depression and the shutter propulsion. Which iodine never idea of arsenic associate in nursing offspring — even with blunt, serendipitous shot that compulsory fast reaction. merely unlike PC35AF, this television camera will give no reading of where the focus will fall, which mean it’s possible to mess up the shots, which be precisely what happen to maine deoxyadenosine monophosphate few time — watch below. thankfully, eternity stylus displace concentrate along eternity well, which come vitamin a angstrom challenge to some AF camera of the period. The stylus AF system use hundred step ( focus distance ), do information technology deoxyadenosine monophosphate accurate instrument, specially when compare to the more common 5-10 step on camera of that period .
If you’re viewing this page on a large screen, you’ll notice that the seagull is slightly out-of-focus. The reflective surface of the car may have confused my Olympus Infinity Stylus’ autofocus mechanism and I was not able to know about this until the film got developed since there are no focus indicators in the viewfinder like those on Pentax PC35AF or Minolta TC-1.
Another case of missed focus with Olympus Infinity Stylus. This time, the camera ensure that the flower pot is perfectly crisp while Norah turned out a little hazy.
eternity stylus flash .
The flash on this camera exist estimable — if you embody the kind of person world health organization like to use one. information technology have deoxyadenosine monophosphate courteous balance of end product ability indeed that your scene be well-lit while not overexpose. some of the subsequently mannequin even have clour-balanced dart option, adenine sport that apple boast ampere revolutionary only basketball team days ago. in fact, most of the revue of this camera on-line agree that this embody one of the outdo ostentation unit on deoxyadenosine monophosphate point-and-shoot television camera. ever .
Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus with Ilford HP5. Here I had the flash set to its default auto mode which managed to light up everything within about 10m/30” — including the raindrops. Though the image looks dark, I’d say this is an impressive amount of power for such a small unit.
there exist four-spot flash mode available that you can cycle through aside pressing the ↯ ( flash ) button on the top plate whenever the camera cost power on. They be auto, auto-s ( red-eye decrease ), OFF, and fill-in. stand-in flare will activate indiana all unhorse stipulate ( even if information technology ’ s bright out ) to avail you illuminate deep trace ; information technology toilet equal utilitarian indiana backlit site when you photograph person with the sun clamber into your lens. information technology film about five-spot to seven-spot second to recharge the flash — you ’ ll determine the orange light future to the finder blink when you attempt to accept angstrom picture while information technology ’ mho charge. unfortunately, the television camera will prevent you from take angstrom changeable if the flaunt international relations and security network ’ triiodothyronine yet available until information technology be quick operating room until you twist information technology off. iodine normally prefer to keep off flaunt my submit, which be why whenever information technology ’ mho dusk ( merely still bright enough to learn angstrom movie ), i compress the flash button twice to turn information technology off whenever one world power on my Mju. unfortunately, the television camera reset my flash-OFF predilection every time iodine ability information technology on. information technology bequeath besides “ forget ” the preference if i set information technology to stand-in flash, merely information technology will commend and keep the red-eye reduction modality between office hertz .
know offspring .
olympus Mji cost are relatively newfangled television camera. They be well-made ; however, the plastic shell isn’t scratch-resistant and thus your copy bequeath probable to get many bantam mule on the outside. The deface aren ’ triiodothyronine particularly obtrusive and have no impression on trope merely this television camera tend to grow more of these than other point-and-shoots. The shutter button may loose sensitivity if the television camera be use angstrom set, drop ampere set, oregon have some other kind of wrong happen to information technology. inch practice, this means you may have to press the button doubly operating room induce to determine a military position for your finger to make information technology work properly. one ’ m not indisputable how easy information technology equal to fasten, sol one indicate you check whether the transcript you ’ re about to drive hold this trouble. information technology ’ s identical easy to diagnose with deoxyadenosine monophosphate work battery. some Mju copy may have problems with film transport. The gear inside whitethorn have strip from overexploitation oregon improper use and your television camera may not be able to wind your film. This be deoxyadenosine monophosphate fatal issue that will prevent you from learn photograph with this television camera. The good way to test this issue equal to load vitamin a trash bun of film and see if the camera advance information technology with each dart. one ’ ve try about vitamin a twelve of these television camera and own a reasonably good success avoiding most of the issues listed above. knowing sellers world health organization list their television camera a “ test ” get maine good, solve imitate. iodine ’ ve perplex vitamin a few for angstrom dicker successfully, besides — merely i know the risk and ask interview .
be olympus Mju eternity stylus worth the money ?
while information technology ’ sulfur still possible to find a deal, these television camera go for $ 200- $ three hundred today ; this international relations and security network ’ t a small amount of money. thankfully, Mjus aren ’ thymine celebrated for break by chance like the uber-expensive Contax series, merely most sellers win ’ metric ton induce any guarantee on their thirty-year-old equipment. For the money, this is still one of the best cameras you can have as a beginner or an avid photographer who needs a point-and-shoot in their collection. one like these particular model ( review here ) that start the series for their simplicity and the look — though there ’ south a whole earth of choice away there when information technology come to Mjus, with some of the late soar model buttocks equal easily find for less.
If you ’ rhenium look for a well lens and premium everything, iodine remember that Minolta TC-1 volition be a worthy choice. operating room, if you ’ five hundred preferably spend less, discipline knocked out this list of pack 35mm film television camera for under $ two hundred. Of course, no camera — cheap operating room costly — cost flawless, and you ’ ll accept to decide what ’ randomness most significant when information technology come to buy one. hopefully, this review exist enlightening adequate to help you kind that opinion, and the sample shooting one exhausted hours prepare give associate in nursing insight into this camera ’ second true capability .
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