![]() ![]() Other than the oversized shutter button, there aren’t that many controls. The battery compartment is on the opposite side of the film door tab it’ll require some gentle prying near the tripod hole to open. Loading these cameras is easy: push the black tab on the side upwards with your left thumb, open the door, get your 35mm canister fitted on the left and pull the film leader to the right over the take-up drum. With the CR123 battery and a roll of film, it weighs 208g (7.3oz). The overall shape of the camera makes it very easy to slip into a pocket. Note how ergonomic the Olympus cameras appear compared to the boxy designs surrounding them. From the top: Voigtländer Vito C, Minolta TC-1, Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus, Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus Deluxe, Rollei 35. Some of the smallest 35mm film cameras ever created. Others, like Pentax Espio, won’t let you slide the cover closed quickly enough as their lens needs time to retract - but not on Mju: opening and closing works like a charm. This isn’t the only camera to have this kind of design, but it is one of the first and the best. Sliding the cover immediately turns the camera on, which an autofocus motor would make plain with a quick whizz as the lens protrudes slightly. A large round shutter button will immediately make operation obvious. Your fingers would rest on the lens cover that has its own little ramp to make sliding it open a breeze. With the viewfinder eyepiece towards you, a perfectly-shaped bump on the right side forms a firm, comfortable grip for the thumb. While their plastic, often weathered shells may not give off “premium” vibes, the simple act of grabbing one can feel so good you may never let it go. But as film photography began to make a comeback, the prices have changed drastically. Its unassuming appearance could be the reason these cameras used to sell dirt-cheap at thrift stores a few years back. A black plastic box with rounded edges, like a bar of soap. On its own, Mju Infinity Stylus doesn’t look like much. ![]() Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus Deluxe and Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus. The prices on eBay and elsewhere are the same for both versions. There’s no difference in apparent quality or reliability between the two assembling countries although the Chinese variants seem to look fresher as they are simply younger cameras. ![]() But the later batches were assembled in China with parts made in Japan. And in that time, I’ve noticed that the earlier series of this camera (smaller serial numbers) was entirely produced in Japan. I’ve used and traded a lot of these cameras during the past couple of years. The rest of the world has these cameras labelled as µ where µ is a scientific Greek-letter designation for micro and is supposed to be pronounced so that it would rhyme with pew : m’joooo! The ones being reviewed here were made for the US market: ∞ Stylus. The cameras received dozens of prestigious design awards over the decade they’ve been in production. Introduced in 1991, the Mju series sold over 20,000,000 copies until ceasing production in 2004. Armed with motorized film transport, built-in flash, and autofocus, it comes with plenty of modern advancements over its older sibling. This little fully automatic gem was meant as a modern successor to the most compact 35mm full-frame rangefinder camera ever made, Olympus XA. A brief history of the Olympus Mju series. Both of these cameras were produced for the US market, which mirrored the exact same cameras that were instead labelled with “Olympus µ” everywhere else. In this review, I will focus on the model that started it all: “ Olympus ∞ Stylus ” and its gold-accented Deluxe sibling with the quartz date feature. The last generation, Mju III, had five zoom-lens-only models. The next generation of these cameras was Mju II which had □2.8 primes and weatherproofing, amongst other improvements. Mju is Olympus’ 1990s series of compact 35mm film cameras that includes 13 models, characterized by □3.5 lens apertures on primes and □4+ on zoom lenses. Olympus Mju Infinity Stylus cameras manufactured for the US market. ![]()
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