So small you always have it with you, good quality pics that are almost always in focus, sliding lens cover, basic controls. Brilliant.
I’m not mad about the design.
It looks and feels like an over-designed appliance from the bathroom (think beard trimmer) or perhaps the bedroom (one of those inexplicable buzzy torches with no bulb you find in Anne Summers). It is quite solid though.
I much prefer the design of the XA2, the AF-10 or my favourite compact Olympus, the AF1.
Does it matter whether it is ‘nice’ or not?
It’s nice to use a nice camera, something you want to hold. Perhaps you use a nice camera more often. Perhaps different cameras inspire you in different ways.
Here’s a niggle; the viewfinder is tiny (how could it be bigger on a camera this small?); you have to line your eye up with it precisely to see through it; and it doesn’t seem to be in quite the right place. I nearly always find myself searching for the finder when I hold the camera up to my eye.
Another niggle; you have to turn it on (by sliding back the lens cover) to turn the LCD on and see how many pics you have left. Plenty of other point and shoots have always-on LCDs – the Canon Zoom XL and the Konica Big Mini for example – so you can see the film count at a glance.
And another one; the flash and self timer buttons are tiny and hard to press; you’ll need to sharpen your fingers. Where are the switches of yesteryear?
But back to the good things. And the goodest of things about this camera is that it’s so small that I always have it with me, ready to shoot in seconds. It really does fit easily in a coat pocket, with a spare film. It takes pictures I wouldn’t have taken otherwise.
I’ve got lots of ‘better’ cameras that aren’t full of the pictures I would of taken had the camera been to hand.
No one has ever taken a picture with a camera that they couldn’t be bothered to carry around (yes, you could leave the camera somewhere and use a remote control… or an interval timer… or a motion trigger… don’t be so picky).
Did I mention it only cost not a lot from a charity shop… this has to be the best value camera I’ve ever bought.
Best of all; the image quality is great.
Links
Camerapedia: http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Olympus_mju_II 35mmc ponders the Mju: http://www.35mmc.com/30/08/2013/the-olympus-mju-ii-the-ultimate-point-shoot/