Olympus Mju Mini Digital
(Olympus Stylus Verve in the USA)
Review Date: February 7th 2005
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the SHQ (2272 x 1704) mode, which gives an average image size of around 2.5Mb.
Noise
There are 4 different ISO settings available on the Olympus Mju Mini Digital which you can select at any time. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 64 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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The noise levels look very good at ISO 64 and 100, with a little noise starting to appear at ISO 200. ISO 400 is noisy but still quite useable.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are on the soft side with post-processing bringing out some extra detail. There are no sharpness settings available on the Olympus Mju Mini Digital so you will have to either live with the slight softness or be prepared to sharpen them on your computer.
Original 100% Crop |
Sharpened 100% Crop |
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File Quality
The Olympus Mju Mini Digital has a number of different file quality and size settings available, with HQ being the default option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with both the pixel and file size shown in brackets. HQ doesn't look too different to SHQ to me, and there is quite a saving to be made in the file size (a difference of around 2Mbs per image).
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SHQ (2272 x 1704) (2.8Mb) |
HQ (2272 x 1704) (882Kb) |
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SQ1 (2048 x 1536) (709Kb) |
SQ2 (1600 x 1200) (569Kb) |
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SQ2 (640 x 480) (160Kb) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Olympus Mju Mini Digital had no problems with chromatic aberrations during the review. High-contrast situations like those shown below which normally cause problems with digital cameras were dealt with very well by the Olympus Mju Mini Digital, with only the faintest of purple fringing present.
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Example 1 |
Example 2 |
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Macro
The Olympus Mju Mini Digital offers 2 macro settings, Macro and Super Macro, that allow you to focus on a subject that is 20cms and 8cms away from the camera respectively. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
| Macro Mode | Macro Mode |
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| Super Macro Mode | Super Macro Mode |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Olympus Mju Mini Digital are pretty standard - Auto, red-eye reduction, fill-in (forced activation), off (no flash). These shots of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (70mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (70mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, the Fill-in setting caused a small amount of red-eye, whilst the Red-Eye Reduction option removed the effect entirely.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Olympus Mju Mini Digital maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Night scene mode, which is fairly useful if you're interested in night photography. The shot below was taken with a shutter speed of 2 seconds, aperture of f/3.5 at ISO 250. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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Overall Image Quality
The Olympus Mju Mini Digital produced images of above average quality during the review period. Noise is very well controlled at ISOs 64-200 and isn't too bad at all at ISO 400. The Olympus Mju Mini Digital's best performance was with chromatic aberrations, which hardly appeared in any of the test shots - only the faintest purple fringing effects could be seen in very high contrast situations. Macro performance was also a standout feature, allowing you to focus as close as 8 cms away from the subject in Super Macro mode. The aspects of the image quality that let the camera down slightly were the slightly soft images and the rather weak built-in flash unit. You will have to do some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop to solve the sharpening issue, and you will have to stand closer to your subject to compensate for the flash! Despite these weaker aspects, overall the camera produced a good set of images.
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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Olympus Mju Mini Digital have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.