WHY THE RACE FOR WIDE ISO AND MEGAPIXEL
Before going into the main review of Olympus u[MJU:]SW 1050 let us first try to understand what is ISO settings and its relation to noise, shutter speed and size of image sensors.

ISO sensitivity expresses the speed of photographic negative material, it is the ISO equivalent that is given since digital cameras do not use films but image sensors. In fact ISO denotes the sensitivity of the image sensor to the amount of light it is exposed to. Which gives a fair idea of the quality of pictures at low light. It affects the shutter speed/aperture combination that can be use to get the right exposer.

It is quite possible that that digital camera light meter gives you a warning signal that the light is not good enough for correct exposer of the scene, you will more often than not grope for the flash but there are situations where you can not use the flash. What do you do? Use a higher ISO, put the camera on “ISO Auto” mode it will automatically select the best ISO settings.

If the camera shutter speed is low say 1/60 secs or less it is necessary for the camera to be kept still but without a proper method it becomes difficult, then a higher ISO will give higher shutter speed options.

In order to achieve greater sensitivity you expose your images to greater noise. Increase ISO means increased sensitivy of the camera and hence the capability to recognizing and recording faintest of light signal resulting in recording of lowest of noises. What is nose? Noise is signal of any kind that is not a part or attribute of the light from the object. Every analog device generates its own noise so does the digital camera. Increase in sensitivity leads to increase in noise. The amount of resulting noise is recorded in terms of Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N).

In modern days the image sensor is calibrated so that it gives the best image quality at the lowest possible ISO speed. The most common calibrations are ISO 50, ISO 64, ISO 100 and for some ISO 200.

Noise in an image is similar to grains in films, it is always detrimental to the image. Now what is the significance of the size of the Image sensor? It determines the capability of digital camera to have a range of ISO speed that it can use without acquiring unnecessary noise. This is where the rat race for higher pixel begins! Because a larger image sensor can have more pixels on it, which means reception of more light, producing greater noise.

The most commonly used size of image sensor is 1/1.8 in or lesser and naturally noise at higher ISO becomes a big deal.

ABOUT OLYMPUS µ [MJU:] 1050 SW.
The Olympus µ 1050 SW is lovely little camera. It claims to absorb the shock of fall from a 1.5 meter height, capable of withstanding the pressusre of water at a depth of 3 meters. Goddamn sturdy.

It has got a superb TruPicIII processor,a ½.33” live 10.7 megapixel CCD sensor, with a resolution of 3648 x 2736 pixels, excellent senitivity upto ISO 1600, a high precision 3x optical zoom plus 5x digital zoom and icludes a fabulous face detection mode detecting upto 16 different faces in the camera shot.

10.7 mega pixel CCD sensor is definitely capable of capturing minutest of detail and brightest of colors, and it does too. The 3x zoom allows great focus.

It has got an excellent 2.7” LCD display. The built in Flash with red eye reduction is reasonably good. More or less good internal memory at 41.6 MB although does not have memory card included. AVI Motion JPEG video mode with Wave sound works without a big fuss. Supports JPEG format and NTSC or PAL video output. Excellent compatibility with PC and Mac and the software that it comes out with is the Olympus Master.

The accessories that it carries is excellent with micro SD adapter, strap, LI-42B lithium-ion battery, charger, CD, USB cable, video cable.

Excellent features such as scene modes: portrait, landscape, landscape with portrait, etc but most of them are prone to errors. Better trust yourself while using them.

I think being an advantage the size is also natural disadvantage at 93 x 62 x 22.6 mm with an weight of 152 grams, be careful number of people rued losing it.

Olympus is a brand which enjoys a great degree of reputation and trust. They have carried this trust producing excellent and professional digital SLR cameras.

DISADVANTAGES
The biggest disadvantage is that it does not have a viewfinder. All though it has got a range of ISO 100-ISO 1600, like most cameras it has also got noise problems. Like it has its problems at ISO 200 and beyond. Now the flash range is 0.2-5.3 in wide angle is a disadvantage because you can not use a an external flash with a compact camera. For telephoto from 0.3-3.7 m is okay.

THE DESIGN
The design is professional and the choice of colors is wide and you can choose from a variety of rainbow colors. But I adore the Black.

It costs somewhere around £155 which quite reasonable for its performance.