PPP Camera Reviews

June 24, 2018

THE OLYMPUS MJU II – WHATS THE HYPE ALL ABOUT?

BY PIERRO POZELLA

For far too long, I’ve thrown aside the idea of shooting with the Olympus MJU II as it appears to be a simple plastic point and shoot camera with nothing more.

I’ve gone through a Olympus MJU I, various Canon compacts and Minolta point and shoots. They were either too thick for them to fit into my pocket , had unreliable autofocus, or were so noisy and never produced anything of interest in the final images

The Olympus MJU II is quite, compact point and shoot that packs a punch. Weather Sealed , Reliable Autofocus and small enough to fit in a jacket pocket, all seemed too good so i decided to find out what the hype is all about.

The Size

The Olympus MJU II is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, Similar in size to the Yashica T4 and bigger than an Olympus XA. The viewfinder is neatly designed into the main body of the camera allowing for a sleek design that is not much taller than a roll of 35mm film. The overall design is much more refined with curved edges and overall rounded body compared to the Yashica T series and Konica Big mini, with the front door sliding across to the right allowing for a great place to rest your hand when shooting avoiding getting you hand in the shot. When the camera is off and door is closed it can easily slip into a jacket pocket with without worrying about the lens. As the camera is mainly made from plastic it is light weight and will not weigh your jacket or trouser pocket down at all, unlike the Contax T series which are made from titanium.

The Handling

The ergonomics of the MJU II design of a small indent that runs along the lower half of the camera allows your fingers to rest easily on the camera body as you shoot. This is not quite the same as a rubber grip however it does the job, this can be annoying as in hot weather or rain it becomes rather easy to slide out your hand, as long as you have the wrist strap on its fine.

The camera is always ready, simply slide the door back and the camera turns on pretty much instantly, always starts up in auto flash mode which means theres no need to worry about lighting. The design is basic with no unessacary fancy features, simply on/off, a choice of flash modes and a timer. The shutter button is a fair size nothing to over the top, gives a little green light when half pressed locking your autofocus in, when fully pressed you can feel a slight click, Nothing as satisfying as a mechanical rangefinder but it is plastic at the end of the day. Once you fire the shutter the camera winds the next frame on which is surprisingly quite for a compact camera. Shooting with the camera on the street is a pleasure, as it uses a tiny leaf shutter which is barely noticeable on a busy street until the film automatically winds on.

One other thing to mention is that this little camera was produced with weather seals which is great as no matter rain or shine you can keep shooting. This does not mean it is waterproof however as I have had many come through for repair with water damage as they had taken a swim. On the repair note it is worth mentioning that all the gears are plastic and over time will wear out. On most of y repairs this is the first thing that needs replacing, then we move onto the fact it is a full electronic camera and old electronics are never reliable, Some MJU will keep going and going while others main circuit board will fail and this is an uneconomical repair. There are still a handful of people that will service them including my self.

Setting ISO

The MJU II automatically sets the iso reading the DX coding from the 35mm film Canister , it ranges from ISO 50 - 3200. The camera does not offer manual iso override or EV compensation, The only way to override the iso is to manually change the DX coding on the film with some tape.

The Viewfinder

The viewfinder is basic with frame lines for that are not so bright to see and 4 lines in the center of the frame to guide you with its autofocus and metering. When using the camera I tend to use the finder about 50% of the time as its so easy to point and shoot knowing both the metering and autofocus is dead center of the frame. For those that wear glasses you don’t need to worry , it does not offer a diopter but i feel i can hold it up to my glasses see through the finder with ease and out awkwardness. Inside the viewfinder are two visible LED’s one green, one red that will display to indicate when autofocus has locked on and low light. The camera will automatically choose the shutter speed and aperture once the the shutter has been half clicked, offering an automatic exposure range of EV 1-17.

Focusing

The autofocus can be considered quite fast for a camera of this generation simply half click then full press, offering on AF point in the center of the frame indicated by several lines in the finder as mentioned. The focusing range offered is impressive allowing for close focus of up to 0.35 meters to infinity, this is closer than what most SLR's can offer with a standard lens. When shooting with the camera is find the focus to be fast enough for moving subjects within reason.

The Lens / Hype - Worth The Money ?

A 35mm F2.8 , its bright, a great angle for all round street, portraits , day to day shots. This is pretty much the only reason for the hype around this camera besides the weatherproofing. The lens itself can produce some exceptional images , the reason for this is that olympus have been at the for front of cutting edge glass especially on a small compacts as well. Olympus where the first in there class to develop bright wide angle lenses such as the 24mm F2 which many people have forgotten. They have also developed some outstanding glass on a small scale seen in the half frame series such as the Pen FT and Pen D. With all this experience and knowledge built up and developed into the MJU II lens it was clear it was going to produce some great results. The colour rendition is superb especially when coupled up with cine still or Kodak Portra, Produces great colour for skin tone. The lens is exceptionally sharp even when compared to images from my leica m4, not quite the sea but not far off either.

A few years ago i would say yes it was worth the money as you could easily find them in charity shops for a £5 and was even worth spending £50 on one online. However today they sell between £120- 180. I even saw one sell for £200 the other day which is crazy considering theres not many parts around and repairs for this type of camera left for when they develop a fault.

With the price of an MJU II you could buy a lovely mechanical rangefinder even a Canon QL, Yashica 35ME or a Nikon AF35. You could even try a leica ltm series with a cheap Russian lens which will offer so much more character and which is so much more enjoyable to shoot on. Okay these cameras are not as compact and do not offer just point and shoot or autofocus, however if your carrying a camera round despite the size its going to be carries round your shoulder most of the time you might as well shoot something with a bit more history and character.

Thats just my opinion I’ll let you guys decide for your self

The Images

Images taken with Cine Still 800 , shot at 800 iso