Olympus MJU 600

When using other small digital cameras in the past, I've been disappointed by awkward controls, poor exposures/picture quality, or poor battery life. But not with the Olympus Mju 600 digital camera...

* Controls/picture quality *

The Olympus Mju 600 digital camera is very simple to operate for those who wish to do nothing but point and shoot. The ESP system deals with most lighting conditions, and all shots are well exposed without any effort from the user. If you are not technically-minded, or there are very awkward lighting conditions, like snow scenes or night shots, a long list of automatic modes can be selected to compensate.

On the other hand, if you are more technically minded and want to over/under-expose, change the flash mode, set the self timer, or use a macro mode, each of these features have a dedicated button on the back. This makes for very fast operation if you need to take manual control. Another separate button allows you to decide what information you want to see on the display when taking pictures. This includes a "rule of thirds" grid, whose horizontal lines are very useful for holding the camera level when taking landscape shots with a visible horizon.

The 6 mega-pixel (2816 x 2112) SHQ top resolution is enough for all but the biggest enlargements. As an indication, 2816 x 2112 pixels provides 9.5 pixels per millimetre on a printed A4 (297mm x 210mm) page. Since the camera saves pictures so quickly (about one second I'd guess) I have used nothing less than SHQ quality all the time.

Pictures taken straight from the camera can be very slightly 'soft' in appearance, but I prefer this to having them over sharpened by the camera's processor. Pictures can sometimes benefit from some very gentle sharpening on the PC, although this is a matter of taste and not strictly necessary.

* Battery life *

Battery life is very good. The Mju 600 is supplied with an LI-12B battery, which perhaps confusingly is charged on an LI-10C charger, also supplied. I used the camera on and off for three days; playing with the features and taking well over a 150 test shots, but the battery life indicator still stayed on maximum. I eventually charged the battery before going on holiday 'just in case' it went flat, not because it needed charging. On holiday, the camera was used for another three days; including some long periods of concentrated use on a tripod with the screen active all the time. After coming home and downloading all the shots to the PC, the battery life indicator was still on maximum!

* Summary *

As an average user, it is hard to criticise this camera. Exposure is spot on, battery life is very good, and once set up, all essential picture taking controls are only one button press away. File transfers to the PC can seem a bit slow, but that may be because the 6MP files are larger than I'm used to. One other possible criticism is the size of the camera - it may be small and perfectly formed, but with cold hands it's almost too small to hold!