Test: Olympus Infinity Stylus (Mju-1) versus Infinity Stylus Epic (Mju 2). Moment Of Truth.

<p><br /> Having both of these famous, cult cameras <br /><strong> Olympus Infinity Stylus</strong> a.k.a. <strong>Mju I</strong> and <strong>Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic</strong> a.k.a. <strong>Mju II</strong> <br /> I decided to perform a honest test, compare both side-by-side, shooting the same scene with both cameras and write a short review based on my observations.<br>

<strong> Methodology:</strong><br>

It wasn't simple because different max apertures ( f2.8 and f3.5 ) and Stylus' limited shutter range being 1/15s... For night shots cameras were mounted on the same tripod. The same fresh <strong>Fuji Superia 100</strong> from the same box (of 3 rolls) were used. Lenses were cleaned before the test (pic.).<br>

<strong> Please use file mames as a reference.</strong> <strong>"Stylus" was used for Mju I and "Epic" for Mju II.</strong> <br />Most of images are resized to appear on the page (letter "s" added). Full size unadjusted images appears as a shortcut. First image is always from Infinity Stylus ( Mju I ).<br /><br /> <strong> </strong> <br /> <strong> Camera feel, controls<br /></strong>Both cameras are small, well designed. I like Stylus' design more, feels better in my hands, Epic is really tiny, little to small for me, but You need to judge it by yourself. Shutter button on Infinity Stylus got much nicer action with firmer stop while pressed half-way. With Epic it's easier to take picture by accident...<strong><br /><br />Lens quality</strong><br /> <strong>As You can see both lenses are of high quality, very high quality for a P&S camera. </strong><br /><strong>Test pictures are showing Stylus Epic being little sharper, especially in the corners... Also Epic showing less vignetting... Some people likes vignetting but my kudos goes to Olympus engineers who built faster lens with less vignetting and better optical quality... That's what I call improvement!<br /></strong> <br /><br /><strong>Light meters: <br /> </strong>Light meters almost agreed. Pictures from Stylus Epic are little brighter and more on the cold side. I like the exposure from Infinity Stylus more...<br /> <br>

<strong>Auto Focus system</strong> <br />Both cameras are using Active Auto Focus (near Infra red beam) to measure the distance.<br />Test pictures showing that Infinity Stylus have problems even in quite contrasty scenes, which is a serious problem and might be a photographer's nightmare... Epic is much better here, correctly measuring distance even in night shots. <br /><br /><strong> Bottom Line:<br /></strong><br /> <strong>Both cameras are well designed. Infinity Stylus feels better in hand, got nicer controls and feel but Stylus Epic is showing big improvement in most important areas: Lens Quality and AF performance. </strong><br /><strong> </strong>I really liked Stylus' shutter speed limited to 1/15s, that will let You catch the action, picture may be underexposed but not ruined due to 1s exposure... But we're talking about really low light conditions, in low light Epic with 400 film is doing fine. <strong> You need to think about that difference.</strong><br /> Pictures from Stylus looks little better to my taste (little vignetting, warmer colors, little darker) but corner softness, even in daylight (pic. Garden crop) is too much for me to accept...<br>

I hope You found this post interesting. Please share Your opinions/thoughts about these cameras.<br>

<strong> Now, the PICTURES!</strong> <br /><br /> </p><div></div>