Olympus mju 9010 review

Small in size, big on features

Though the Olympus [mju:] 9010 could be classed as ‘dinky’, fitting easily into a pocket at a moment’s notice, it’s by no means flimsy. Its weighty, blocky build helps to reassure the user that it doesn’t need to be treated with kid gloves. A slim build means that on-body controls are compromised, particularly on the top area. Here users will notice that a Mode dial has been negated – instead there’s simply an On/Off button (with LED power light) and tablet-shaped shutter release. An in-built automatic flash with no need for a pop-up compartment also keeps things contained and compact. Dominated by a 2.7-inch HyperCrystal View LCD screen, the rear of the camera is also fairly minimal, with zoom controls, a Playback button, control wheel, Menu and In-camera manual buttons and a red circular button for recording video quickly and easily. While all buttons and controls are small, meaning the camera is not over-cluttered, they can be somewhat fiddly to use – those with larger hands may find switching modes and zooming in and out on the fly slightly difficult.

In the absence of a Mode dial, modes and settings can be selected from a list of options running down the right-hand side of the LCD upon power up. Choose from Program mode, Intelligent Auto mode, Beauty mode, a range of scene modes (including ones as niche as Cuisine and Documents), Magic filter modes and a Panorama mode. Scroll through with the control wheel and select one, and a designated amount of other options including macro, self-timer, flash, etc will be available to you. Intelligent Auto mode limits these options to just two (flash and self-timer) to make shooting more straightforward. An icon at the bottom of the list takes you to a Setup menu, where you can adjust settings such as the Shadow Adjustment feature – which lifts the shadows on an image taken in contrasty light – and video settings for the on-board 720p HD movie feature.

Beauty mode is designed to ‘touch up’ your portrait shots, removing blemishes and improving the overall look. Although a fun extra – complete with ‘magic’ sparkle during the transformation process – it does take a while. We couldn’t really see any difference between the before and after shots, either. One other extra that we were more impressed with was the Magic filter mode, which adds different effects to your images – Pinhole, Fisheye, Pop Art and Drawing. Pop Art proved effective for sharpening colour and contrast without making shots look too gaudy, while the Drawing mode made an image look like a sketch and Pinhole and Fisheye emulated the effect created from these type of lenses (albeit only to a certain degree). It may not be a feature you’d use all the time, but for certain shots it’s a nice way of achieving an alternative effect or making them look more interesting.

Image quality is impressive, with colours being faithfully reproduced and subject matter clear and detailed. The versatile focal range of 28-280mm means the 9010 can cope well with both close-up and wide-angle shots. Low-light and night shots could be better – shots on Intelligent Auto mode tended to opt for high ISOs, causing a great deal of noise. The shutter speed was also only 1/4sec, which proved far too fast for a successful image. Switch to one of the two Night scene modes, though, and the slower shutter speed of four seconds produces better results at a lower ISO. Dual image stabilisation is on board, but to prevent blurriness caused by camera shake here you’ll probably still need to steady the camera on a surface or tripod.

Low-light photography aside, this is a camera that performs reliably and has lots of handy extras added into its small frame. Correctly pitched at travel photographers, this is the perfect portable camera for on-the-go shots. It’s also more than suitable for the entry-level shooter, with a supportive in-camera manual and short on-screen explanations of every setting you scroll through.

Considering the cost, it’s not a bad little effort from Olympus.