Olympus Mju 1000

Performance
The Mju 1000 performed sluggishly in our tests, especially in dim light. It took only 1.7 seconds from power-on to first shot, but after that we endured a 3.3-second wait between shots without flash. That pause increased to an even 4 seconds with the onboard flash enabled. Shutter lag measured a respectable 0.7 second in bright light, increasing to 1.3 seconds in dim conditions. Burst mode could shoot at only half-resolution or less, but proved quite fast at 3.8fps.

Image Quality
Noise is the Mju 1000's greatest weakness. It started to manifest at ISO 200 and became quite noticeable at ISO 400. At ISO 800 and 1,600, images suffered from a distinct, greenish-purple grain, and details became horribly softened. At the 5-megapixel settings of ISO 3,200 and 6,400, even coarse details were completely destroyed by noise.

However, at low ISO settings, the Mju's 10-megapixel images were large and quite crisp, with fine details showing up clearly. We noticed distinct purple fringing on the edges of white objects and some slight barrel distortion at the lens's widest angle, but otherwise the camera's images looked very good.

The Olympus Mju 1000 offers high-resolution images and a water-resistant metal body. Unfortunately, noise issues and slow performance mean poor photos in low light. Unless splashability is a major factor in your purchase, you might want to look at other 10-megapixel cameras. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 offers a great lens and tons of manual controls, while the Canon Digital IXUS 900 Ti stuffs its 10-megapixel sensor into a frame even smaller and sleeker than the Mju 1000's.

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