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Olympus Mju 1010

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Features

The Mju 1010 boast a 7x optical zoom lens which we think is rather impressive, especially in such a compact form. However, it is only 37mm at its widest and we found it rather lacking when compared with other shooters like Panasonic's Lumix DMC-FX36 (25mm ultra-wide-angle lens) or Fujifilm's FinePix F100fd (28mm wide-angle lens) which was showcased alongside it.

Olympus makes up for the lack of a wide-angle lens with an in-camera panorama feature. After you take the first shot, a small crosshair will appear on the left side of the screen and a white dot on the right. Pan the camera until the dot is in the middle of the crosshair and it will automatically snap a shot. After three shots are taken, the Mju 1010 will process them into one panoramic picture.

We like the Dual Image Stabilization, which combines sensor-shift (in accordance to hand movement) and high ISO sensitivity. This is a slightly more effective method to prevent blurred pictures, apart from the usual optical image stabilization (which shifts the lens instead of the sensor) system. However, the image may be noisier due to a higher ISO sensitivity being employed.

The Mju 1010 touts a 2.7-inch HyperClear LCD on the rear and, according to Olympus, it is supposed to give a "bright display even in brilliant sunlight". While we could see a clear image most of the time outdoors, we couldn't quite view the display when we positioned it directly under harsh sunlight.

There is also a Shadow Adjustment feature for backlit subjects. By activating it, the camera will instantly increase the exposure for the darker region to reveal more details. However, depending on the lighting condition, there were times when we got blown highlights in the brighter region of the picture.

The BrightCapture Technology in the Mju 1010 is a nifty feature for low-light photography. When shooting at night or in dimly lit conditions, the camera was able to detect and showed more of the scene on the LCD, which made focusing and framing the picture easier. This can probably be attributed to the TruePic III image processor, which promises faster image processing and better image quality.

Video recording-wise, the highest quality that this shooter can record is VGA (640 x 480 pixels). It is a little bit disappointing when the Mju 1010 is hailed as a power compact by Olympus when its competitors like Panasonic's FX36 and Samsung's NV24HD are going high-def and are capable of recording at 720p (1,280 x 720 pixels) quality. But unless you are thinking of shooting a feature film, the VGA-quality recording should do fine.

Besides all the shooting-assist features, the point-and-shoot also has face detection and 23 scene modes for different shooting situations. It has 14.7MB of internal memory (which is good for approximately four shots) and an xD-Picture Card expansion slot which we didn't really fancy as the highest capacity for this flash format currently is only 2GB and slightly more pricey compared with the common SD flash card.

 
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