Re: OLYMPUS MJU II (in Europe)

[Simon Ogilvie <edlsnoe@deep-thought.ericsson.se>]

Lucien wrote:

> Did you ever tried the new Olympus MJU II (in Europe, I don't know is name
> in the States)
> I'm considering  it as a backup camera because of :
> - speed (from 1S to 1000/ sec)
> - lens 35 mm 2,8 (good quality ??)
> - size
> - Flash fill-in
> - the price (much cheaper than the Hexar, Ricoh GR-1, both the Nikons,
> Minolta Titan, Minilux, Contax T2 etc..)

I have a mju-II which I bought when they first arrived here in the UK last 
November.  It is not in the same league as the other cameras you mention in 
terms of build quality (and probably lens quality) or in the manual overrides 
the others have,  It does however have spot metering which can be locked in 
along with spot focus, while you recompose the shot.  The lens uses an 
aspherical rear element which very effectively eliminates barrel distortion 
which is so common with this type of camera, and the lens is generally a good 
all round optical performer, although probably not as good as the other 
cameras in your list, which to be fair are a lot more expensive.  I used a 
Yashica T4 before buying the mju-II and found the T4's focussing delay very 
annoying.  The mju-II is a lot faster, and the lens is probably just as good 
as the T4.  You might also want to consider the Leica mini II or III or the 
mini zoom which are reputed to be very good.

Simon.

______________________________________________________
 Simon Ogilvie   -  UNIX Systems Supervisor
                    Ericsson Data Ltd., Guildford, UK
 simon@guildford.ericsson.se