CHRIS GRIFFITHS photo: Olympus mju 2 [mju:] II Review. Is it as good as the legend says?

Olynpus Mju II. Quickly snatched shot.

The Olympus mju II is hailed by the on-line photo community as the pinnacle of consumer level 35mm compact point and shoots. The sharpness of it's 'large aperture' f2.8 lens is legendary. It's also super compact, weather sealed and simple to use. It sounds ideal for street photography.

But is the Olympus mju II any good for street photography?

Before I get onto the optical performance of the Olympus mju II I think I should write about its handling. As that is what usually makes or breaks a camera for me.

The mju II has a handful of user selectable function, the most useful being a spot meter option. The rest are just the standard 1990's compact camera fodder such as self timer and other gimmick settings that I won't go into here. Other than those functions it is fully automatic with no user selectable settings, other than the flash.

The MJU II has some issues that impact it's ease of use as a camera for street photography.

The Problems

The viewfinder is too small to shoot quickly. Unless your eyeball is squinting bang square down it you just can't see anything. It wouldn't be out of place on a microscope - its that small. The viewfinder window on the cameras front plate is even smaller again - no more than a few millimetres across. It's very precisely built, I'll give it that much. There is a focus light in the viewfinder as well as a flash indicator. They aren't easy to see.

The flash always defaults to ON. You see a shot, snick the lens cover open, struggle with the view finder, press the shutter and the think sends out a blast of light from it's tiny built in flash. I suspect I will end up gaff taping the flash on mine. You have to turn the flash off every time you power up the camera.

The shutter release button is hard to feel and the transition is too sensitive between locking focus (half press of shutter) and exposing a frame. It's far far too easy to take a shot accidentally whilst trying to compose the shot and lock focus.

The small form of the mju II can also cause a bit of a problem. It's too easy for your fingers to cover the lens when taking a shot. When shooting digital you don't care but when shooting film every frame has an associated cost and it can mount up if you're not careful with your handling.

Handling summary

The mju II is not a camera to be rushed. You have to be purposeful and definite in your movements with it. If it was slightly larger, say Ricoh GR1 proportions, it would be almost perfect.

The good points. The mju IIs saving grace.

The autofocus is outstanding. Much quicker than my DSLR. It's lightning quick. Ehen I shot the test roll it didn't miss focus once. It works via a beam system that measures distance. It can focus in low light just as easily as broad daylight.

I'm not entirely sure how the whole focus system works exactly regarding focus points and the mechanics of the lens. The mju II seems to momentarily poke out the lens as you press the shutter - I guess this is how it focusses? I can only guess that this method could lead to a bit of lag between pressing the shutter and exposing the frame. I have no evidence of this though.

The lens does live up to it's hype and it is very sharp indeed. I was blow away by the test roll prints I got back from the 1hr lab. Nice contrast, colour with fantastic clarity and detail. It just effortlessly delivers consistently sharp and well exposed frames shot after shot.

In Summary

The Olympus mju II has a bit of a split personality. It handles like a toy camera - it just doesn't feel like it should be any good. But. Its image quality is right out of the top draw and every bit as good as the ledgend. This lens and focus system in another body would be a killer combination.

If you can pick one up for £25 quid or less, do it. Just don't expect to be able to walk around and quickly and comfortably capture candid moments on the street with it. It just can't be used quickly due to its small size and the difficult handling could see it end up not getting used as much as it deserves.

Here are a few sample images.