Olympus MJU 600 Review

The Olympus MJU 600 is part of a series of stylish weatherproof digital cameras. It has six megapixels and a three times optical zoom lens. It is really a simple point and shoot camera although it does offer a wide range of preset scene modes as well.

Its style coupled with its ease of use means that the MJU 600 is likely to appeal to someone who is looking for a straightforward digital camera who is also prepared to pay a bit more for a better build quality. The weatherproof body that protects the camera from rain is also likely to be an attraction.

Every now and again I come across a digital camera that I just cannot get along with. Sadly the MJU 600 falls into that category. The first model I had was shipped back to Olympus for repair three times. On the third attempt Olympus replaced the camera. Unfortunately the new model is not that much of an improvement on the original camera.

I have also tried different settings and having talked to Olympus about the settings I have been using I have been unable to work out where I have been going wrong.

The biggest problems occur when I take photos of subjects in the distance. This shows up in all my outdoor scenic type shots. Focusing is poor. This is despite the fact weather conditions were excellent and the camera was sat upon a tripod. Although not as noticeable when the subject is closer to the camera I cannot describe any of the pictures I have taken with this camera as pin sharp.

The outdoor portrait also raises questions about colour. Although the scenic shots are fine in this respect my outdoor portrait has an orangey caste to it. It is fine for a digital camera to add a warm feel to a portrait shot, but this is over the top and in my opinion detracts from the photo.

Looking at the indoor photos both the portrait and the shot of beer bottles taken in low light lack sharp focus. The portrait shot is also affected by red eye.

Another shot where other cameras have produced a better result is the macro shot. This is another example of the sharpness of the photo not being up to scratch.

The MJU 600 has ISO settings up to ISO 2500. This can help in lowlight situations. As with many digital cameras though quality soon falls away. Once you reach ISO 400 there is a marked deterioration in picture quality.

So there you have it. I have struggled to find a single photo I was happy with taken by the MJU 600. Having reviewed and liked other cameras in this series I am left both surprised and disappointed.

The MJU 600 managed to take a single shot in 0.36 seconds. This is a shade higher than the time I expected to see. It took 6.95 seconds to take five consecutive shots. This works out at a rate of one photo more or less every 1.39 seconds. This is a fast time. Therefore you should get a good response from this camera if you wish to reel off two or three pictures in a row.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

For composing and reviewing images there is a 2.5" LCD screen. The screen is made up of around 115,000 pixels. I really like the screen on this camera. It is very bright and clear. There is also a brightness control that helps you to be able to see the screen more clearly in sunny and dark conditions. In fact when it comes to working at night and in very lowlight this is one of the best cameras I have come across. Even in more or less complete darkness you can still see your subject on the screen. To put this in context most digital cameras would show a completely black screen in these conditions. Unfortunately there is no room to fit a viewfinder in.

The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 105mm in 35mm format. The maximum aperture of the lens is f3.1 (wide) and f5.2 (tele). There is also a 5x digital zoom feature. In super macro mode the camera can focus from 7cms away from the subject.

When you first use the MJU 600 you will probably want to simply turn the camera on and take a few pictures. You can do this by using automatic mode. As well as automatic mode there are a very wide range of pre programmed shooting modes. These help the camera to take the best possible photo for a variety of different and sometimes difficult photo opportunities. The scene modes available are: Portrait, Landscape with Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene, Night Scene with Portrait, Available Light Portrait, Cuisine, Beach & Snow, Self Portrait, Self Portrait with Self Timer, Indoor, Behind Glass, Museum, Document, Auction, Candle, Sunset, Fireworks, Shoot & Select 1, Shoot & Select 2, Underwater Wide and Underwater Macro.

In addition there is also a function to reduce image blur. This is only available for low resolution images though.

There is a panoramic function that helps you to stitch together shots to create panoramas. This feature is only available when you use an Olympus xD memory card. It cannot be used when you are recording images to the internal memory.

The built in flash unit can be set to automatic, red eye reduction, always on and always off. It has a maximum range of 4m. This falls to around 2.5m when the zoom lens is fully extended. If you are shooting at low resolution (much less than the full six megapixels) and you are using a high ISO setting (1600) the range of the flash increases to a maximum of 8m.

The camera's movie mode lets you shoot short movies at a resolution of 640x480. The top speed is 15 frames per second. Movies can be recorded until the memory card is full. You can also zoom in and out while shooting a movie.

There are a number of effects you can apply to a photo after you have taken it. These include removing red eye, resizing a picture (this helps if you would like a smaller file size to send by email), changing the shot to black and white or sepia and correcting brightness and saturation levels.

There is also a self timer for when you would like to appear in the shot.

Looking at more advanced features you can select from two types of light metering, digital ESP metering and spot metering. To help you with the balance of the photo a histogram is available in both shooting and playback modes. There are a number of preset white balance modes to support the auto white balance setting. These are Tungsten, overcast, sunlight, fluorescent light 1,2,3.

Other advanced features include shutter speeds between ½ - 1/1000 sec (night scene up to 4 sec), exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV with 1/3 EV steps), sensitivity ISO 64, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 (ISO 2500 for modes Indoor, Available Light Portrait and Candle). It should be noted that ISO speeds of 800, 1600 and 2500 are only available at very low resolution.

There is a high speed shooting mode. This lets you shoot at a rate of one picture every 1.3 seconds until the card is full. Again if you set the camera to shoot images at a low resolution you can increase the shooting sped to 4.3 frames per second.

Olympus supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the MJU 600 to a television set, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.

All in all the MJU 600 is a pretty straightforward digital camera. The key controls for flash, zoom, scene mode and picture review are all to be found on the back of the camera. It is not overladen with buttons though and if you are new to photography or digital cameras you should soon be up and running. The Olympus menu system is not quite as intuitive as others, but again once you have spent a short period of time getting to know your camera you should have little difficulty in finding your way around.

Turning on the camera's movie mode is tucked away in the menu system. This is normally controlled through a button on the camera. This is a minor disappointment although it is only likely to be an issue if you are planning to take movies on a regular basis.

One tremendously useful feature is the guide. This helps you to understand each option on the menu. You press the guide button when you are using the menu and it will explain what the current menu options do. This is a simple addition to the camera, but a very helpful one nonetheless.

You can pick up a Olympus MJU 600 for around £145. This compares to around £210 for a Panasonic DMC FX9, £160 for a Sony DSC P200 and £200 for a Nikon Coolpix 7900.

As you can see the MJU 600 is cheaper than many similar digital cameras. Part of the reason for this is it is only a six megapixel model compared with the seven megapixels of the Sony DSC P200 and Nikon Coolpix 7900. Owing to the picture quality I cannot recommend the camera even at this price.

The MJU 600 is a standard rectangular shape. It comes in three colours red, navy blue and silver. I like the style of the camera and it fits well in the hand. It is slightly larger than the ultra compact, pocket sized models, but is no real problem to carry around. It has dimensions of 97x 55 x 26.5 mm and weighs in at around 129g.

A rechargeable lithium ion battery is supplied with the camera. Olympus also supplies a charger. The only drawback of this type of battery is that spares can be expensive. Therefore you need to make sure the battery is fully charged before setting out to take any important shots.

Images are stored on xD cards. Olympus do not supply a card with the camera because there are 7.9mb of internal memory built into the MJU 600. I managed to capture just seven photos using the default setting before the menu became full. When you consider some cameras come with 32mb of memory either built in or as a memory card this is an area where I feel Olympus could be more generous. Click here to save money on xD cards.

Use guide
LCD screen performance in lowlight
Style and design

Picture quality
Very limited internal memory

The Olympus MJU has proved to be a big disappointment. Having reviewed a number of other cameras in this series this has come as quite a surprise to me. Having tried with two different cameras and a range of different camera setting I have been unable to produce sharply focused photos.

Olympus Mju 600 Front View

Olympus Mju 600 Back View

Olympus Mju 600 Top View

Sample Menus



Click for: Specification Sample Images

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Olympus MJU 600