Olympus Stylus Epic/MJUii
I spent a good amount of quarantine shopping for 35mm cameras online and landed on an Olympus Stylus Epic or Mju ii(As it’s known in Japan). This camera has become super popular and has garnered quite a bit of hype over the last couple years but that’s not why I bought this camera. I bought this camera because I wanted a point&shoot that wouldn’t derail me from getting what we need to get with our paid work with our digital cameras and something that I could essentially “shoot from the hip” with. I wanted a camera that has more of a spontaneous quality as opposed to a more serious camera for carefully composed portraits or landscapes such as a Pentax 67 or Mamiya M645. The Olympus Stylus is great for photographers who enjoy Lomography’s Ten Golden Rules which is my approach to this camera. I’m sure it doesn’t need another review, but I enjoyed reading other reviews of this camera so I thought I’d throw another one into the mix. I’d also like to note that I’m an absolute novice when it comes to shooting film, besides shooting on some disposable Lomography cameras the last couples of years.
What I Love About this camera
- Even though this camera is tiny, it has a surprisingly capable lens. With an aperture of f2.8, it’s very versatile in most situations.
- There are very few settings to fuss with which makes it really easy to use. For some people that may be a downside but for my intended use of this camera, it’s nice not having to worry about camera settings.
- Because it’s tiny, it fits in a pocket or a small compartment in a camera bag or purse. When it’s safe to travel again, I plan to have this with me fairly often.
- Auto Focus and Auto Exposure is mostly accurate (despite some of the obvious ones below).
- Film Is Easy to Load. As opposed to older SLR 35mm cameras, everything about this camera is automatic so you don’t have to worry so much about loading it incorrectly which is probably only a problem us novices have.
- It’s fun. There’s a lot to be said for just enjoying shooting and this camera is fun to shoot with.
What I Don’t Love But Also Isn’t a big Deal
- The main gripe about this camera is that the settings reset after you slide the lens cover back on. Since this camera often errs on the side of using flash, I’m having to continuously disable the flash. However, since there is a single button to disable the flash, this isn’t really a problem.
- Since we often shoot in “moody” or contrasty window light, I haven’t got the hang of getting it to expose for the highlights as opposed to the shadows. Quite a few of our scans have come back very over-exposed. I’m thinking this is because this camera’s auto exposure is pretty accurate and I’m essentially trying to trick it into underexposing the highlights. However, I have yet to try the spot metering setting which I’m convinced might be the way to go.
- It’s expensive for what it is. This camera was about $70/$80 when it came out back in 1997 and since it’s now on trend, it’s difficult to find one for under $300 with some listings as high as $600. I was happy buy one at KEH Camera for around $300 but if it were any more expensive I might have opted for a Fuji Klasse which is still on my radar.
Overall, I’ve been having a ton of fun with this camera and happy I bought it. I’ve taken it to almost every one of our weddings and shoots just to get the hang of it. It’s also been a nice camera to shoot with around the house and for little everyday moments.
Here are some of the photos I’ve taken with this camera over the last few months. I doctored exposure and white balance just a touch on some of these photos. All of these were shot with Kodak Portra 400 or Kodak EKtachrome E100. Also, if you’re interested in hiring us we are officially adding 35mm as an add on to any shoot!
