Ok here's the scene: Location is at the Olympus headquarters, the people are the team in charge of new products for olympus.

Bob: Hey we are getting pressure to come up with a new digital camera in time for the christmas season.
Jim: Well our new line isn't going to be ready until summer of next year!
Bob: Hey I know, how about we take the Stylus 300, make it 4 megapixel, add a gold plate on the front, make it more weather resistant and call it the MJU 400!
Jim: God Bob that is really brilliant! Just Brilliant!
Bob: Yea plus lets get a really good PR firm to make some really cool commercials so that the people who go on looks alone will buy the heck out of it!
Jim: Wow Bob that is also really brilliant, just absolutely brilliant!
Tom: But what do we do about people who research before they buy, shouldn't we also try to make it a better product not just a rehash of a old one?
Bob: Oh don't worry about those people, they are too small a group anyways. By the way Tom your fired.

Hehe anyways you get the setup for the MJU 400 camera and now onto the review!

PICTURE QUALITY: B-
Now as always I put picture quality first, because well in any camera if it doesn't take a good picture, well your out a few hundred bucks. The resolution of the 400 is better than the Stylus 300 only because of the jump from 3 to 4 megapixels, but the actual quality of photo is no better than the 300. The quality of photo your going to get is average at best, in fact I believe a throw away camera available at any drug store takes as good a photo as the 400.

Problems your going to see are a few. Your going to have problems with exposure, white balancing and autofocus. Your also going to notice a slight yellow tint to pictures under certain lighting. I noticed that the pictures I took of bright colors, and lets face it during the christmas season, red is a prominant color, these colors are a bit oversaturated, the best way I can explain this is the old technicolor movies, how the colors were brighter than in real life. Its a good thing you can take photos under rain clouds because in bright light you are going to loose a lot of contrast in white areas. For instance if you take a crumpled sheet of paper, put a light on it, the 400 will not show the wrinkles.

EASE OF USE: A+
While the photo quality is average, the ease of use is excellent. Features that they have added to the 400 that the stylus 300 didn't have was a scene select, which includs: Standard up close and far away options, night shooting and here's my absolute favorite gimick on any camera I've seen lately. Personal photo. Meaning holding the camera in your hand and taking a shot of yourself. I still smile when I think of this as a option for a camera. It actually works pretty darn good too. The night shooting also works decent as well.

To start the camera you simply slide open the front cover (which is gold colored), and within 3 seconds the camera is ready for business. This is actually the same amount of time as the Stylus 300, so no big difference. Your going to look at another 3 seconds in between shots on normal mode but it does have a quick shot mode that lessons this to 1 second. This is pretty standard for cameras of this size and design.

DESIGN: A
Well when talking about a camera you want it to look nice and well thought out, the 400 does this well because the Stylus 300 also was fairly well designed. Easily small enough to fit in your pocket this camera easily passes the size test, which in a point and shoot digital camera is of utmost importance. Closed up the camera looks nice and of course the best part of the design of the 400 is the weather resistance.

I live in Portland, OR so it rains quite a bit here, so the idea of a normal point and shoot that can stand up to misting rain is nice. I did some research on the weather resistance of the 400 and it can withstand moisture to a good degree, but let me be honest, it can't be submerged or something totally STUPID like that. It is weather resistant not impervious.

BATTERY: A++
While the 400 has a nice gimick with the weather resistance, and with the self portrait option (smiling), the absolute high point of this camera is the battery life. I have NEVER used a camera that uses so little juice thus giving super long life to its battery. With the LCD screen on, I was able to take over 500 pictures before it said low battery. Thats right FIVE HUNDRED! This was at the highest setting of picture quality and using various scene selections. This just blew my mind, olympus gets top marks for battery usage.

PRICE: B
Ouch the going rate is $300-$400, which is not so good when compared to the s40 or the sony equivalent, or many others. You can get less expensive models of other companies that will give you better quality shots at the same resolution.

CONCLUSION
Well the 400 is a nice point and shoot but lets face it, for me the picture quality is not up to snuff. It is actually dissapointing because the 400 does have a lot that I really like, maybe the eventual 500 will up the picture quality.

Bottom line is that this is a updated version of the Stylus 300, with some new features but nothing earthshattering. If you like the Stylus 300 you'll like the 400, plus a bit more.

While I wouldn't buy it for my personal camera, I wouldn't scoff at seeing someone else buy it, I guess I have to put it in the recommended pile but with a warning about picture quality.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 300
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use