Olympus mju 6000 Tough at sea...

Wangerooge was a good occasion to play with the new Waterproof Olympus camera. This is the kind of activity I bought this camera for. I shot a lot of pictures this weekend on and of the water. The Picasa slideshow shows a selection. How does the camera perform in kayak-practice? My reference is the Sony DSC-U60.

What I really like about the Olympus is the very usable zoom-range from 28-105 mm (35mm eq.) that covers most situations. Brilliant is the incorporated automatic lens cover - this prevents quite effectively (but not completely) drops on the lens. The large LCD-screen is even in full sun good to see. The camera fits perfect in the pockets of my PFD (Kokatat MsFit). The buttons are small, but the essential ones (on/off, shutter release, zoom) are surprisingly easy to use, even with frozen hands (with gloved hands the on/off button is difficult to find). The control wheel on the back of the camera (used to select various shooting and playback modes) is a little too easily moved when taking the camera in and out of a pocket for example. Sometimes you find the camera in video- or playback mode when you want to take a picture. The lens is set high and to the left of the camera so I ended up with some shots with an edge of a finger in front of the lens.
I find the picture quality acceptable - not perfect - in standard conditions (OK: I am quit critical in this point). Low light performance is bad: a lot of noise at any ISO above 200. In sunny situations the camera tends to a bit over-exposure: but in P-mode the camera is easy to tweak - a correction with -0,3 stops helps.

The biggest problem of the Olympus however is its sluggish performance. Start up time, focus time and cycle time (from one picture to the next) are slow. This really is a serious drawback for a point and shoot camera that you want to use for action photography. I missed several good picture moments this weekend because the camera wasn't ready... Disappointing for a modern camera: the 5 year old Sony is much faster!

Overall I am quit pleased with the Olympus - despite it's sluggish performance and some issues with picture quality, I still prefer it above the Sony because it's much more versatile (and because of the incorporated lens cover).