The MJU 810 is a superb effort from Olympus. Boasting 8.0 million pixels, a large 2.5” LCD display and a weatherproof metal body this camera is a style icon and functional too. Once you take it out of the box, you immediately feel that you have something special in your hands, a stylish and modern item that you just must show all your friends.
Style and Substance
The camera itself is just larger than a credit card meaning it slips perfectly into pockets and handbags; and thanks to its all metal body the MJU 810 is heavy enough to know it's there yet light enough to forget.
It's hard to work out quite who this camera is aimed at. With the price coming in at around Ł330, it's not out of reach for the family or small business. But with 20 different scene modes, ranging from behind glass to sport, portraits to landscapes, candlelight to fireworks and almost every shooting situation in between, it also has lots to offer the enthusiast or anyone wanting to improve on basic point and shoot.
A Guiding Hand
One of the best shooting modes on the camera is the “guide” mode. In this mode, users whether experienced or amateur can make advanced adjustments to the cameras settings, such as ISO levels, shutter speed, image stabilisation etc. This makes it perfect for the amateur wanting to experiment.
The 3x optical zoom, the 35mm equivalent to 35-105mm, gives a reasonable level of zoom, however it could be better considering the price.
The large 2.5 inch LCD screen takes the role of both viewfinder and playback screen and is a great feature of the camera. It was a pleasure to use one of a growing number of cameras with a large LCD screen- the point is not so much that you get to see more, but that the screen actually displays a reasonably detailed and representative image. Images are taken almost as soon as the shutter button is pressed and pictures appear quickly on the screen for review, so you know instantly if you've got the shot or not.
One of the most impressive features of the MJU810 is its start up time. With all the features I expected a fairly long wait for any action, but in fact we were up and running in under a second, so those spontaneous, one-off moments won't be missed.
Memory mayhem
No memory card is included with the camera; however a free 64mb XD card can be claimed upon registering the camera (smart idea, Olympus!), but with 8 million pixels on full or half resolution, the card's capacity will soon be eaten up, meaning you'll almost certainly be out shopping again soon. Incidentally, if you buy a genuine Olympus memory card, the panoramic feature in the camera is enabled opening up a whole new world of creative options for exploration.
The menus and control are as simple to use as they can be. When using scene mode, finding out what each different setting will do is a piece of cake, as is the guide mode. The buttons are a little bit fiddly for those of us with larger fingers.
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Ease of use 
Functions
Value for Money
Overall 
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On the whole this is an excellent camera from the Olympus MJU series. A small, neat and tidy yet sturdy camera it is perfect for daily use. Ease of use and the wide range of shooting modes are going to make this camera a huge success. It would have been good to see the camera loaded with a 4 or 5x optical zoom, but with 8million pixels even with a bit of cropping the camera still produces some very pleasing results.
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