The Olympus MJU 820 is one of the few weatherproof digital cameras on the market. It can stand up to most conditions and you should have no problem using the MJU 820 in the rain. At a shade under 25mm wide it will squeeze into most pockets. Inside its metal body is a fairly typical snapshot digital camera. The emphasis is placed more on ease of use than advanced features.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The first thing that strikes me about this camera is the fact the MJU 820 has a problem with bright sunlight reflecting from light coloured objects. This can be seen on the side of the boats. Putting this issue aside focusing is good. The brickwork on the building stands out well and focusing remains fairly strong as you move out away from the centre of the photo.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is quite an extreme test, with parts of the scene very distant. The MJU 820 handles it well enough. As with most digital cameras focusing does start to drift as you move towards the edges of the photo.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
Looking at this picture I can see the same problem with sun glare as in the first photo. This could be a problem if there are a lot of light areas in the photos you are planning to take and the sun is shining down. Focusing is again quite good and you can see the extra length of lens helps to get you in a little closer than a typical 3x zoom does.

Outdoor Portrait
The colours produced with this shot are softer than the majority of other digital cameras produce. This may or may not be to your own personal taste, but I am quite happy with the result. I have used face detection focusing to increase sharpness and white balance has been adjusted to cloudy to suit the weather conditions. This helps to give a bit of boost to the colours.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Moving indoors and turning on the flash produces a decent indoor portrait. There is plenty of detail in the shot and the camera managed to avoid red eye on this occasion.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This is my favourite photo out of this set of test shots. The lighting may not be overly challenging, but even so the MJU 820 does a better job with it than most cameras I have tested. The photo has a very natural look to it when compared to the portrait taken with flash.

Colours
Olympus digital cameras produce more gentle colours than most other brands (especially Panasonic, Kodak and Samsung). There is a tendency for some blues to take on a purple tinge under bright sunlight.

Macro
The macro shot is a little disappointing. It does not have the same clarity a lot of other cameras manage. Even so the MJU 820 should be good enough to take the occasional macro shot, especially if you are using more natural light than in my test.

ISO 400
Compared with other cameras the MJU 400 stands up pretty well when the light is less than perfect and flash is not used. Noise inevitably does creep in, but it stays within reasonable bounds and there is still plenty of detail showing.

ISO 1600
As ever picture quality has fallen away at ISO 1600. Even so the MJU 820 produces a better photo than many cameras I have tested. I can't see this setting be using all that often though.

Overall
I am happy with the test photos I have taken with the MJU 820. They are not the best set I have ever taken, but the camera holds up well in most cases. Shame about the sun glare!

I was able to take a single photo in 0.32 seconds and five in 12.39 seconds. With the flash on a single photo took 0.49 seconds and five took 13.70 seconds. These are all standard times and it is encouraging that turning on the flash does not have much of an impact on these times. You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

With a sloping front the Olympus MJU range has a slightly different look to most pocket cameras. This camera is just about small enough to fit into a pocket. It is available in four colours, Midnight Black, Starry Silver, Ruby Red and Crystal Blue.

96.4 x 56.4 x 24.3 mm

125g

Power is supplied by a lithium ion battery. Both a battery and charger are supplied with the MJU 820 as standard.

47 megabytes of storage have been built into the camera. I was able to take 33 photos before the internal memory was full. It is also compatible with xD picture cards.

Click here to save money on xD cards.

Good. With not too many features to get used to the camera is easy enough to use. The menu system is quite straightforward, but some items are a bit tucked away.

Weatherproof - neat design

Sun glare

If you are looking for a weatherproof camera then you are limited to this range from Olympus. Other more standard pocket models to consider include the Fuji Finepix F50FD. You could also try the Sony DSC T200.

There are not many weatherproof digital cameras to choose form. So if this is important to you then the Olympus MJU 820 is probably as good as any. Picture quality holds up until you really start to push the camera. Shutter lag times fall well within what is acceptable and the camera is also easy enough to pick up and get started with.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menus

Description:	8 megapixels and a 5x optical zoom
Ease of Use:	8
Features:	8
Colour:	8
Macro:	7
Indoors:	8
Value for Money:	8
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	7
Build Quality:	8
Total:	78
Verdict:	If you are looking for a digital camera you can use in just about all weathers than this camera is worth a close look. It just about fits into a pocket and is available in four different colours. It has a longer zoom than most pocket sized cameras.
Review Date:	February 2008
Click for:	Specification Sample Images Features

Camera	Rating
Canon IXUS 85 IS	86
Canon IXUS 90 IS	86
Canon IXUS 80 IS	85
Canon IXUS 70	84
Fuji Finepix F50fd	84
Panasonic DMC FS5	84
Panasonic DMC FS3	84
Panasonic DMC FS20	84

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 820