Small, pretty and effective
Written: Apr 29 '00 (Updated May 26 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: light, intelligent, automatic
Cons: vulnerable, but not as much as I feared 4 years ago.
The Bottom Line: Works well; More robust than it looks; I would buy a digital camera nowadays though.
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| BartvanHerk's Full Review: Olympus Stylus Zoom 140 QD 35mm Film Camera |
This camera is marketed in Europe under the name of 'mju' (the greek letter), not as 'stylus'. I selected it after lugging around a large old-fashioned Minolta SLR for many years and wanted something small that I could slip in my pocket or at any rate carry around without noticing it and without sacrificing the zoom capability.
Since originally writing this review I have used it for about 4 years, taking it with me on a number of holidays and other occasions and it still works perfectly. I do always keep it in a good protective case. The diopter correction knob on the viewer window tends to get turned by putting it in and out of the cover which is a pain.
Next time I would not, perhaps, buy a camera with quite this amount of zoom - it looks impressive in the shop but the fully zoomed out state is hard to keep still and get sharp pictures; the flash is nearly useless at that sort of distances. A slightly more modest zoom facility would probably make the camera a bit more rugged.
Pros: It works about as automatically as you could want, is small, light, silent and problemless. I have been using it for about 4 years now and taken about 2000 pictures with it; It is still working.
Cons: 1) the zoom control works well but feels a bit wobbly, there is no good tactile feedback when you make the contact to zoom in or out; 2) the lens, especially in its fully extended zoom position is rather fragile and you have to be careful not to damage it; 3) there is a slight delay (maybe 0.2 seconds)after pushing the shutter button as the machine measures the light and focuses before the picture is taken, so that action pictures become a bit of a guess. The flash is not very powerful as is to be expected of a camera of this type and size.
Advice: buy a good protective case/cover to carry it around in. You'll feel much safer even if it is a bit bigger and heavier if you carry it around.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
BartvanHerk
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Member: Bart van Herk
Location: IJsselmuiden, Netherlands
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 2 members
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