Olympus Mju 9000

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Olympus' foray into the compact superzoom segment is met with tough competition. Panasonic's TZ series has already established itself with consumers as the point-and-shoot with long zoom range, and Canon has also the PowerShot SX200 IS which offers more exposure control for shutterbugs. So what does the Mju 9000 deliver that can differentiate itself from rivals? Perhaps its biggest advantage is its size, as this compact camera claims to be the world's smallest and slimmest shooter with 10x optical zoom.

Design

The Mju 9000 is on the left and the TZ7 on the right.
(Click for larger image)

As with other snappers in the compact superzoom category, the Mju 9000 footprint isn't small. The chunky polycarbonate body has a solid build which gives users a reassuring, professional feel. However, the Olympus is slightly smaller and lighter than the Lumix DMC-TZ7 and the PowerShot SX200 IS, but only on the specification sheets. When we held the Panasonic and the Mju 9000, there wasn't really much difference. That said, the Olympus compact is 44g lighter than the TZ7.

There are two silver strips along the sides of the point-and-shoot which has no functional purpose, though it does complement the look of the camera. However, it is prone to fingerprint stains as with most point-and-shoots with glossy casings.

The lens took up about half of the front of the Mju 9000.
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The front of the camera is dominated by a large lens barrel which takes up almost half the estate. This means the flash has to be repositioned, which in the Mju 9000's case means relocating it near to the handgrip. The problem was we had a tendency to cover the flash with our fingers when taking pictures.

The back of the shooter houses a 2.7-inch LCD, mode dial, four-way navigation pad and buttons to access the menu, display options and playback functions. A good feature the Japanese company has implemented is backlighting for the buttons so it's easy to make changes to settings even when snapping shots in the dark.

The revamped menu in the Olympus camera.
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Users who are familiar with Olympus point-and-shoots will notice that the menu interface has gotten a mini revamp. The icons are now in color instead of duo tones and that looks a lot more interesting. Other than that, the navigation remains the same.

The Mju 9000 is available in three colors--black, blue and champagne gold.

Tags: Camera, LCD, Panasonic, Olympus Corp., Japanese company

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