Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW: Review

Product Details We clicked with: Waterproof Shockproof Freezeproof Shots in the dark: Noise issues at high ISO Battery life Limited options in scene modes

The Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW is a further addition to Olympus' ever-expanding µ [mju:] army, a step above the µ [mju:] 790 SW 'Tough'. Thankfully that 'toughness' is retained for this new model, even if the tagline is not - you're free to drop the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW on the floor, chuck it in the bath or leave it in the freezer without losing any sleep. And let's face it, we've all left a camera in the deepfreeze and the dinner thawing in your back pocket. Olympus got you covered!

The Camera:

Giving other compacts a run for their money, the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW sets out to tick all the 'compact must have' boxes, whilst adding its own brand of special features. Face detection and digital image stabilisation come as standard, only now with the added bonus of being waterproof to 3m (or to 40m in combination with the optional Olympus PT-041 underwater case) and shockproof to 1.5m.

The slim metal body comes equipped with a 6.7-20.1mm f3.5-5.0 lens (38-114mm in old 35mm money) and is available in 3 colours - starry silver, midnight black, or ThinkCamera favourite metal pink. A 2.5” HyperCrystal LCD sits next to the boxed off set of controls, which are simple to use despite the slightly dinky mode dial requiring the odd bit of finger-nail encouragement. The menu is easy to use - quick select a shooting mode via the mode dial, then the arrow pad below allows quick access to flash, macro, exposure compensation and self timer mode. It only gets a bit more complicated when churning through the 24 scene modes - each is helpfully illustrated, but it sure does take a long time to pick through. Thankfully there's some clever intuition in the form of “Favourite” mode on the mode dial - allowing for quick access to your selected favourite modes (once you are familiar with the setup at least).

Like any Olympus camera, the onus for storage is on the own-brand xD picture card. Small revelation this time around however with the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW including a microSD attachment converter in the box. May sound like small beans, but as many of you with mobile phone contracts may know there's a current spate of microSD cards packaged together with many mobile devices. (Hears small cries of joy from Nokia N-series owners).

Battery life did cause some issues. Not far into use and the battery alert began to flash and continued to do so for the remainder of its life, which sat at around 2 hours of use. Constantly assuming that the camera is about to take its last shot is not the best way to put it to use! Given the relatively polar options of “green = charged” and “flashing red = almost out of battery”, there's not really any leeway to distinguish exactly how long you've got left. Those who may remember the first wave of digital cameras are probably familiar with the perilously poor battery life that was often a good reason to have a disposable film camera in your purse too - a trait much more of old than nowadays, but an area that could certainly be improved for the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW, or should we say, the next µ [mju:] to hit the shelves.

The images:

Amid the Auto mode is the option for Programmed Auto, which allows for the ISO to be manually set between ISO64-1600. It's great to see some more complex features in a compact to allow user control, but the upper echelons of ISO are poor. Stick between ISO64-400 and there's no major issues, but pushing to 800 gets bad and 1600 is more like a coarse mosaic than a photograph.

ISO: 64

100

200

400

800

1600

The rear LCD is bright, but is directional, which could make it tricky to see under strong sunlight. Whilst there are options to brighten or darken the screen's display, it's truly no match for the sun - although that's what things like the Hoodman are designed for. Secondly, the capture on the screen is so punchy and bright that it so much as renders exposures in a much more 'positive light' than the actual capture. Not a problem for anything captured in auto mode, but a different story when setting up to try and compensate an exposure - only to find the final result on your computer monitor is a bit dim and flat.

For example, the image below is straight out of camera, but looks more like a dodgy Photoshop composite - the colours sit against one another really harshly, the mix of overcompensated areas stand out to excess, and the auto white balance is overly yellow for the midday sun.

In-camera Shadow Adjustment is a nice feature that raises the exposure levels of shadowed areas whilst more or less retaining the highlights. It's very much in line with a lot of the HDR (high dynamic range) that is becoming evermore prominent in the world of digital image capture, albeit usually at the more pro level. In this context, it's evidentially extremely useful by providing an equivalent of “fill flash without the flash”.

Shadow Adjustment is not an available option in many of the camera's scene modes sadly - particularly those already set up to deal with unusual or dark conditions (underwater and night for example).

Macro mode comes in normal or Super Macro guises and is pretty good, so long as you don't try to push too hard and get really close. The auto focus frequently struggles to find correct focus, frustratingly overshooting the correct image focus plane. Keep enough distance and the results are more than reasonable however:

As for the 'special features' - the waterproofing really does work. How you use that is entirely up to you, as things underwater really aren't the same as on land. That may sound obvious, but don't expect to be able to take perfect images underwater quite simply because of the nature of water itself. Sadly we don't have any tropical fish tanks in the ThinkCamera offices and can't afford to fly to the coral reef any time soon - so here's a wholly dissatisfying distorted image taken from inside a pint of water. It's not the pinnacle of photographic genius, but the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW was more than happy to take a good dunking! The distortions are only due to the bend of the glass itself.

Conclusion:

Olympus cover a huge market area with not only the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW, but all cameras from the µ [mju:] SW range. It's tough. Simple as that - if you're going away on holiday and want a camera you can use with the whole family, then this camera will do that for you. Be that on the beach or in the sea, in some cold and wet moorland of not-so-sunny England, or half way up an icy mountain - you can still take photos.

"Waterproof. Shockproof. Funproof," reads the new Olympus tagline. Having thrown the Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW in the bath, tossed it in the air and even tried to have too much fun just as a means to break the hardy metal body... But it didn't happen.

The picture quality, lens range and the battery may not be top rank, but no other manufacturer has put as much effort into reinforcing (literally) a whole line of camera models. That's the ticket - the most significant reason to buy an Olympus µ [mju:] 850 SW is if you will distinctly benefit from its tough features.

Our Verdict

Share this article:

Del.icio.us this

Megapixels	8
Screen	2.5" LCD
Zoom	3x Optical Zoom (38-114mm 35mm equiv.)
Picture Modes	24 modes AVI movie
Stabilisation	Yes
Sensitivity	ISO64-1600
White balance	Auto, 5 options
Storage	xD microSD adapter included 24MB Internal memory
Battery	Lithium ion rechargeable
Other / Key features	Face recognition Metal Body 3 colours - starry silver, midnight black, metal Waterproof to 3m Shockproof to 1.5m Freezeproof (to -10C)