Here are some results from my July film camera (See: July Film Camera – Olympus Mju (Infinity Stylus) II Zoom 80).
I’d taken a some pictures (in Croton-on-Hudson and while walking to meet a friend in Ossining, NY). Then I went with my wife to Muscoot Farm to see a friends’ paintings – part of a water color exhibition being held there. I was getting close to the end of a 24 exposure roll so I decided to quickly finish it off so I could send it to be processed. I got up to 24 exposures, and then past. Fine, I thought, you usually get a few extra exposures. But then the the exposure counter kept on going. I glanced at the small window in the back of the camera and confirmed my suspicion that I had put in a 36 exposure roll (I have a number of very old rolls of Kodak Gold. I don’t know where they came from, but when I’m trying out a new camera I just grab one of them). As I’m never sure how well a “vintage” camera will work, I don’t usually spend too much time on getting a great shot. This time, however, I was definitely “snap happy”, just wanting to finish the roll and get it off. I suppose I was using the camera as intended: point shoot, point shoot, point shoot…So how did it all come out?
Not too bad as it turns out. Of the 36 exposures there were about 16 I liked. Of the remaining 20 I rejected 7 because I’d taken more than one picture of the same subject and I liked another better. The pictures were OK, but I liked others more. That left 13, 4 of which I rejected because of poor composition (i.e. my fault rather than the cameras); 5 because of blur (possibly because the camera had selected a slow shutter speed); and another 4 where the exposure was way off.
The camera is certainly capable of taking decent pictures. However, I did have some problems with focus/exposure. I’m not entirely sure which one it was because it seemed to happen most when I tried to focus on bright objects (e.g. a bright, white building in full sun, a white flower etc.). The resulting image came out very badly overexposed, to the extent that I couldn’t really determine whether it was in focus or not.
I also experienced the same problems as I’d had the Olympus Infinity Stylus and Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic: the inconvenience of having to turn off the flash every time I turned the camera on; the complete lack of any kind of information re shutter speed and aperture.
In addition this particular camera suffered from the light leak problem I mentioned in my earlier post. I’d had this in mind when I took the pictures and had composed somewhat less tightly than I usually do. This allowed me to crop out the leak on most of the exposures.
I felt that the lens was not as sharp as that on the Stylus and the the Stylus Epic, particularly at the long end of the zoom where it was soft.
On the plus side I was pleased with the one flash exposure I took.
I’m not likely to use cameras of this nature very much as I don’t like the lack of feedback on shutter speed/aperture. If I were to use one I would be more likely to use either the Stylus, or the Stylus Epic because of their better lens and the fact that the zoom isn’t all that helpful. And then there’s the light leak. That would be enough to prevent me from using the camera regularly. So all things considered it’s decent picture taker, but not for me.
Above Ossining, NY Street Scene
Ossining, NY Storefront.
Muscoot Farm, Red Barn.
Muscoot Farm, Bell and Sign.
Muscoot Farm, Another Red Barn.
Muscoot Farm, Sundial.
For more pictures taken with this camera see:
