Olympus Mju-1

I haven’t done my lunch-hour charity (thrift) shop wander for about 4 or 5 weeks. Maybe because of that I found a little gem! I have just reduced my camera collection considerably to concentrate more on fewer cameras that I’m going to use regularly. That said who could turn down an Olympus Mju-1 (infinity stylus in the US) original for a fiver?

It is in average condition, certainly used, with the odd mark here and there but still a good find for the money! The case was filthy and went straight in the bin, but surprisingly it had a good working battery in it, so I could fire it in the shop, that’s maybe the first time that’s happened to me.

I seem to be collecting Olympus compacts from the decades by accident. I didn’t intend to – I just found them! This original (Mju-1) came out in March 1991. It has a 3 element f3.5 lens which is well regarded. The lens was the main improvement in version 2, becoming a 4 element f2.8. You can read about my other’s in my mini collection here.

As happens, my last roll of bulk load film resulted in a 17 exposure roll – I decided to use this for my Caffenol experiment in my last post – I also used it to try out the Mju-1 at the same time.

I will test further, I think I see a bit of vignette in the corners, maybe a little softness too. That, to a degree is to be expected if the camera is wide open, with 20 year old film processed in coffee! Perhaps I’ll try a roll of Kodak Gold in it next?

If find myself quite “split” with photography at the moment. I admire people who can have a couple of cameras, use them well, get great results, and enjoy PHOTOGRAPHY. I’d like to be like that too! While I’ll never be a camera collector, I do like cameras, and trying/testing something new. So the last few days of trying out a new to me camera, with old film that might have possibly been dumped, and processing it in coffee, I’ve found great enjoyment in. It seems many people polarize themselves into two camps – one or the other, almost like the (largely redundant IMHO) Digital/Film debate – I seem to enjoy both!