Olympus µ1010 compact camera

Silly name aside, this is a quality camera

By George Cole • Get more from this author

9th April 2008 14:08 GMT

Olympus µ1010

A fun, friendly camera that offers good performance and fair sprinkling of features.

Suggested Price:: £229
More info:: The µ1010 page on the Olympus UK website

Rating

Review The curiously named Olympus µ1010 is also known as the mju 1010, which doesn’t make it any easier to pronounce. It comes in three groovy - or garish - colours, silver, black and metallic blue.

This is a pretty well-specified camera considering the price and target audience. There’s a beefy 7x 6.6-46.2mm optical zoom lens for starters, which is equivalent to a 37-260mm zoom on a 35mm camera.

Olympus' µ1010: it even works underwater

The 1/2.33in CCD is a 10.1-megapixel chip, and you also get a twin image stabilisation system, face detection, special technology designed for low-light shooting and 23 scene modes. You can even use the µ1010 underwater, up to a depth of 40m, provided you’ve got an optional underwater case. And a good pair of lungs.

The µ1010 is a slim camera, measuring 99 x 56 x 25mm and weighing 135g without battery. It’s certainly very pocketable. At the front is the usual flash and lens arrangement, while on top is the shutter control and power button - which glows a nice blue colour when switched on. At the side is a flap for a mini USB port, while around the back is 2.7in LCD screen composed of 230,000 pixels. Nearby sits a zoom rocker bar, control dial for various modes, the menu button, a playback button and a four-way arrow pad for controlling macro, flash, timer and exposure compensation.

Below this is a display button and shadow adjust/delete button. Underneath is a spring-loaded cover for the battery and memory card. Incidentally, rather than use an SD card or Memory Stick, the µ1010 uses the xD-Picture card format.