Olympus Mju 820

Olympus continues the Mju line of digital cameras with the Mju 820, an attractive 8-megapixel digital camera. This new model sports a 5x lens, a large, bright LCD screen, and a surprisingly useful new feature Olympus is debuting with its current generation of cameras.

Design
As we've come to expect from Olympus' Mju cameras, the Mju 820 looks and feels good. The slim, all-metal camera weighs just under 140 grams with battery and xD card and measures just 24.3mm deep. Its sturdy body handles splashes and showers with ease, but don't confuse weather-resistant for weatherproof; it won't survive a full dunking. If you plan to soak your camera, consider instead the waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof Tough 790SW.

Features
Among Olympus' myriad of Mju cameras, two features distinguish the 8-megapixel 820: its lens and its screen. The Mju 820 packs a 36 to 180mm-equivalent, 5x zoom lens that gives it a slightly longer reach than the higher-resolution Mju 1200. Unfortunately, the Mju 820's longer lens carries a slow f/3.3-5.0 aperture range, compared to the f/2.8-4.8 range of the 1200's 3x lens. Despite its longer reach, the 820 lacks the sensor-shift image stabilisation of the 1200, relying on the less effective method of ISO-boosting, shutter-quickening digital stabilisation. The step-up version of the Mju 820, the Mju 830, includes the mechanical stabilisation found on the higher-end Mju, but otherwise offers nearly identical features to its little brother. Be wary, though; the Mju 830 carries a AU$50 premium over the Mju 820 for its seemingly singular upgrade.

Besides the lens, the Mju 820 features a slightly-larger-than-usual 2.7-inch LCD screen. The 230,000-pixel display boasts an impressively wide field of view; we could make out the picture it was displaying regardless of the angle of the screen. This wide viewing angle works great when shooting concerts or any other situation that requires you to hold the camera above your head, at your chest, or far to the side. Olympus claims that its LCD screen includes antiglare technology that lets you view it even in sunlight. While the display still suffers from reflections and glare under any direct light source, it indeed remains surprisingly legible in bright light.

Like the other members of this generation of Mjus, the Mju 820 includes a feature called Perfect Shot Preview that shows you how different settings will affect your shots by displaying those effects in four frames onscreen. For example, if you access exposure compensation, it will show you a neutral exposure, plus what the picture will look like at +0.3, +0.7, and +1.0 EV. You can use the control pad to navigate the previews, so you can see how the shot will look at any EV level. You can also look at the different effects of white balance, zoom levels, and even metering settings. Most cameras let you see how these different settings will look before you shoot, but this is the first time we've seen multiple previews on one screen. When shooting in awkward lighting, you'll quickly grow to appreciate the ability to simultaneously preview four different white balance settings, or compare ESP and spot metering.

Performance
The Mju 820 fared poorly in our lab tests, taking a painfully long time between shots. After a 1.7-second wait from power-on to first shot, we measured an obscene 4.2 seconds between every shot thereafter, with the onboard flash turned off. With the flash enabled, that wait increased to 4.4 seconds. The camera's shutter proved responsive enough, lagging just 0.5 second with our high-contrast target and 1.3 seconds with our low-contrast target. The camera includes a burst mode, but that mode cranks down resolution to 3 megapixels, rendering it ineligible for our tests.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T20

1.3 

1.3 

0.4 

Canon Digital IXUS 800 IS

1.5 

1 

0.5 

Olympus Mju 810

3 

2.7 

0.7 

Olympus Mju 820

4.2 

1.7 

0.5 

Nikon Coolpix S50c

2.4 

3.9 

0.9 

Image quality
Were its terrible performance not damning enough, the Mju 820's pictures also disappoint. Extreme softening obscures and renders illegible virtually all fine details. Significant fringing crops up in almost all contrasting edges, producing purple or green auras around very light objects. These two issues result in pictures that work well enough for e-mails, Web sites, and small prints, but quickly fall apart when blown up. Despite their flaws, the Mju 820's photos carry some redeeming qualities. The camera displays a generous dynamic range, bringing out details in shadows that would otherwise vanish. The pictures also reproduce colours faithfully, with the automatic white balance keeping colours neutral under all but the warmest incandescent lights.

The Olympus Mju 820 packs some pretty useful features in its stylish metal case. Unfortunately, its painfully slow shooting and overly soft pictures render this otherwise nifty camera a flop.

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