

I bought several at flea markets for as little as 2 euros a piece back then. Festivals, fairs, museums, social gatherings, concerts, business trips, holidays, my Mju-II has seen it all.Ī few short years ago, nearly all film cameras were being discarded wholesale by the general population, including the Mju-II. I frequently used it from a tripod and because it will allow for long shutter speeds, which most AF compacts don’t, I got some excellent shots in dark situations this way.īecause it so small, people will not take you seriously and you will be allowed to make pictures where people with more impressive-looking cameras might not. If you are not into speed, the Mju-II also works when you have some time to set everything up. No other camera offers the same combination of small size, sturdiness, competence and above all, speed. Nevertheless, given the choice to use just one camera for the rest of my life, I would probably pick the Mju-II. With the Mju-II, with the lens wide open, vignetting is evident, and no lens is at its best wide open. Image quality will never be as good as, for example, an Olympus XA, where you have full control over the aperture and you can stop down a little. The auto-exposure is heavily biased towards wide apertures and fast shutter speeds. Sure, you can switch the flash off, but as soon as you close the clamshell cover, which switches the camera off, it forgets.Īlthough I personally have a deep and unrelenting love for the Mju-II, I can give you some more flaws. Another often bemoaned point is the lack of flash override. If you don’t, you might compare it unfavourably to your SLR, or to a more premium metal-bodied compact. You either ‘get’ the Mju-II, or you don’t.

KF article top The Olympus Mju-II: a cult camera in the making (Pic: Akairom/Flickr)
