Olympus Mju 810

By David D. Busch, CNET.com
Jun 21, 2006

The versatile, water-resistant 8-megapixel Olympus Mju 810 adapts to dim environments as readily as it braves damp ones. Thanks to a combination of high sensitivity (up to ISO 3,200), digital image stabilization, and Olympus's Bright Capture pixel-pooling technology, the Mju 810 can take and display acceptable pictures in low light. Unfortunately, this camera doesn't do as well in fair weather--its LCD tends to wash out in bright sunlight. If you don't need quite as many bells and whistles, you can save a bit by opting for the Mju 810's little brother, the Olympus Mju 700.

Design

	Guide provides a series of options and instructions for common activities such as brightening the subject or shooting against a light.

The Olympus Mju 810's sleek, 170g stainless steel body is easily pocketable and less than an inch thick, with its 35mm-to-105mm-equivalent lens fully retracted. Unlike its resilient brother, the Mju 720 SW, the Mju 810 isn't submersible, but it has better sealing and gasket coverage than a typical camera, which allows its weather-resistant body to keep shooting despite a bit of dust or precipitation.

You can easily manipulate most of the camera's controls with your right thumb, so the Mju 810 is well suited for one-handed shooting. Besides a power switch and a shutter release on the top panel, all camera controls are clustered on the back panel, next to the 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. These controls include a zoom rocker and a simple mode dial with only five settings: movie mode, scene selection, playback, recording mode, and Guide.

	The cursor keys themselves serve double duty, used to navigate the camera's menus and to adjust specific options such as EV (plus or minus 2EV in 1/3-stop increments), self-timer, flash, and macro/supermacro.

The four-way-plus-Ok control pad is surrounded by four additional keys: Menu, digital image stabilization/printing, trash, and display. The last button cycles the camera's LCD through various modes, including a rule-of-thirds grid for composition and a live histogram. The OK/function key opens a menu of the most frequently used shooting options: White balance, ISO, drive mode, and metering.

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