Olympus µ[MJU:] 700 Digital

I bought my mju with Amazon online for £163.00 so had no real inkling of the size so when it arrived and I prised the box open I was almost "where it is?" thinking that this pretty but titchy little silver thing could not possibly be my mju but it was! Having lived with my 1.3 mega-pixel Fuji for the last 8 years, and been used to it's rather unweildy bulk I was almost afraid to pick up this tiny little thing, but I plucked up the courage, and wondered how long it would take me to get used to it's controls etc, and glad I had till September before I went on my hols.

It comes with a small booklet telling you the basics of getting started with your camera and there is an advanced manual in pdf form on one of the two discs included, the other being the software for moving around and manipulating your pics.

After spending a couple of weeks with this camera, I can honestly say I can't imagine that anyone would have any problems with using this camera, although I have to admit to not being someone who has difficulty with new items, and preferring to fiddle and learn rather than read a manua, but it probably took me an hour or so to work out the whole thing, in fact it is so simple I have had to check a few times to make sure I am not missing anything, but I'm not (or haven't found anything yet!)

Basically you can either point and shoot, if that is all you want to do, or choose one of 23 different modes:

Portrait
Landscape
Landscape & Portrait
Night Scene
Night & Portrait
Sport
Indoor
Candle
Self Portrait
Available Light
Sunset
Fireworks
Museum
Cuisine
Behind Glass
Documents
Auctions
Shoot & Select 1
Shoot & Select 2
Beach & Snow
Under Water Wide 1
Under Water Wide 2
Under Water Macro

Each of which comes with a simple on-screen explanation just in case the title is not self-explanatory is - but Olympus have done all the work in configuring them, all you do is choose and shoot.

Then if that is not enough for you, you can choose between 13 "guided shooting" menu items:

Brightening subject
Shooting into backlight
Set particular lighting
Blurring background
Adjusting area in focus
Shooting subject in motion
Targeting with assistance
Close up photo
Super close up photo
Shooting at night
Reducing blur
Reducing red-eye
Adjusting image quality

all of which lead you into choices to set the mode as required to get the effect you are looking for.

Then you have the final mode of video, which again is just point and shoot.

The menu button system is very much like a mobile phone, small keys but very well thought out, four buttons surrounding the middle "ok" button, enabling you to change to macro, move round your pictures, change flash mode etc. Outside of these are four more keys with coloured icons or words on for printing, deleting shots, accessing main menu, and toggling the on-screen display on and off. There is a zoom button at the top. And that basically is it. Completely idiot proof but also, to me at least, completely intuitive and incredibly user friendly. I feel like I have known this camera forever, and I think I am going to adopt it, it is going to become my third cat, becuase it is so cute, just not as cuddly and doesn't ask for food as much :-). Oh, and no fleas :-).

The only gripe, but this is the same with almost every camera these days, is that memory card and case are extras, so I have had to fork out for them, but they are one-offs and you could live without them - well not the memory card really, becuase the internal memory only holds about 8 photos, or a 2 minute video, which isn't much use to anyone. I bought a one gb memory card for £24, but I am greedy, and I doubt I will ever fill the card with photos, but have found that it will take a 45 minute video.

Oh, and one other small thing, but this is probably just me, I have found the little lid that you shove to one side to insert the USB cable in, incredibly difficult to work my way round, first time I spent about half an hour fiddling with tweezers and scissors, fearful of damaging my new little friend. Did get it open eventually, but it is the one feature of this camera that I don't think was well thought out - or maybe they just did what they could with the small space available. The battery and memory card go in the same slot, very convenient and makes sense.

The battery itself needs removing for charging, but that is a 10 second job (removing not charging but charging doesn't take long either) so although at first I wasn't sure about that, now it is fine. It does mean you have to cart the tiny battery charger (which is supplied, along with a camera strap and all cables required, including a European use cable which I thought was a nice extra addition) and cable with you if you take it on holiday or something, unless you get a spare battery, though I have been using mine for two weeks now, taking countless shots, and videos (the cats are getting big heads, they are now video stars, or rather guinea pigs!), and using the flash extensively, and the juice bar on the battery has hardly moved. I am taking it to Scotland for five days in September and I am completely comfident that one battery will be more than enough. And it is so light and small that I will be able to take it everywhere with me without any problem at all, it would slip into even a small clutch bag without any difficulty, and definitely a jeans pocket, though I would be very worried about sitting on it!

Transferring to PC is simplicity itself (after figuring out how to get the USB cable in), using the disc provided to install the software.

The quality of picture and video so far has been excellent, but when you are used to 1.3 mega pixels 7.1 is a bit of a jump! No complaints at all yet. And I love the macro and super macro modes which will be brilliant when I get round to selling on eBay again, good pics at last. Using the special "auction" mode of course :-).

Oh, I forgot, it is also waterproof/all weather, though if you are going to use it under water you do need to get an additional housing, but I have not looked into that as other than jumping in the Mersey the likliehood of me using it underwater are pretty dim.

All in all, I have to say that I think this is a truly wonderful little camera, I am very very pleased I went for this one. I spent about a month researching them, was hovering between this and a Sony but I am very very pleased that I finally went with this one. I bought mine from Amazon by the way, I really wanted a blue one but that was about £30 more so I decided to be sensible for once in my life and got the silver, but I have no complaints, it's great. The 1gb memory card cost me about £30 and the case about £20. OH, and be careful of Pixmania, who are based in France, I nearly bought the camera from them until i found out that the menus and everything were in French, and when a camera gives so much info onscreen, as this one does, you really need it to be in your native tongue :-).

I am trying to think of anything I have forgotten - oh, it has a tripod hole in the bottom. I am sure I will think of something and will add to this review as it comes to mind.

If you got to the end of this review without falling asleep, congratulations! Sorry it is so long but this is such a lovely little camera I wanted to tell the Ciao world as much as I could about it :-).

PS Thought of something - there is no viewfinder, you frame your shots through a 2" x 1.5" (approx) screen, and although I had some misgivings about this before buying, I can honestly say I have not missed having a viewfinder at all, and find the screen makes for far easier framing - and it is incredibly clear and easy to see. Also, it is worth buying the case for this camera, not only to keep it safe, but in my case becuase the case is obviously a bit bigger, I lose it less often now, prior to having a case I was forever forgetting where I had put the camera and it is so small it got hidden easily!