Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 170 QD 35mm Film Camera

My camera is actually an Olympus mju II, which is exactly the same as the Stylus Epic, only purchased in Beijing, China. Other than the name, the cameras are totally identical.

There is a story behind the purchase location, simplified down to my wife and I were in Beijing and she went on to Korea two weeks before I did, and took the camera with her. I was looking for something cheap to carry on the rest of my trip, and came accross this little gem in a Chinese camera store. It was about $80 after currency exchange, and was consideably smaller and lighter than anything else at or near the price. Since we were already happy with our little Canon SureShot, I didn't want to spend much, and wasn't really serious about photography at that point anyway.

Boy did I get lucky. I didn't realize just what a great little camera this was. First off, Olympus is known for quality optics, and the 35mm fixed focal length lens on this camera certainly qualifies. I've blown up images from this little camera to 11X14 with excellent results. More than sharpness, however, it is the fast f2.8 maximum aperture and wide shutter speed range (I've had exposures as long as 2 seconds and the specs say it goes up to 1/1000 sec)allow me to turn off the flash and with the help of a mini tripod, take wonderful available light photos in almost any conditions.

THe flash works well for outdoor and indoor fill, has a redeye reduction mode that actually works, and most important, can be disabled. There is also a self-timer and data imprinting functions. Of course, all the P&S features are here, autofocus, auto-exposure, bright viewfinder with center marking for autofocus sensor, etc. There are also some nifty features usually reserved for SLR cameras, such as focus and AE lock and self timer. Focus/AE lock is very easy to use, just center your main subject and press the shutter release halfway, then recompose as you will and press the shutter release the rest of the way, the camera will retain your focus and exposure settings from the initial reading.

Another feature I like is the night mode, which sets a slower shutter speed but still fires the flash. This is great for portraits as the flash will illuminate the subject, while the long shutter speed creates detail in the background, rather than a field of black like most point and shoot cameras give you. The flash still has the option of red eye reduction or normal when used in night mode, just don't forget your tripod and to use the self timer to avoid camera shake.

I'm not sure if the USA model comes with a remote, but my Chinese model did not. It does have the remote sensor and remote control can be enabled using the same button as the self timer, however since I do not have the accessory remote, I cannot comment on its range or effectiveness. My new digital camera (Canon G3) has this feature and I find it very useful for group portraits and macro work. Speaking of macro, forget about it, this camera will not focus close enough, and like all point and shoots, there is no way to accurately frame close subjects, so save macro photography for your SLR or digital camera.

The camera is very elegantly styled, and in this case, function doesn't take a back seat to style. The only USA model Stylus I've seen is a black one that belongs to a coworker (controls and functions are identical to mine), while my Chinese model is the same champagne color as Olympus Stylus digital cameras. It looks expensive and feels very good in my large hands, but is also comfortable for my 9-year-old daughter to use. The sliding cover for the lens is also the on-off switch and reminds me of the old Olympus XA cameras of the 1970s. That camera also combined a high quality 35mm f2.8 lens in a small, go-anywhere package.

Finally, the Stylus Epic is weatherproof. I've used mine at the beach when I was actually IN THE WATER. While I didn't submerge the camera, it did get hit by more than one large wave, and it remains as good as new to this day. As an $80 camera that I bought almost four years ago, I take this camera places where I don't want to risk my newer P&S camera, a Canon PowerShot G3. What always impresses me, however, is the quality of the pictures that come back from the lab. I've taken color slides, color prints and recently B&W prints with this camera, and even with narrow latitude slide film, exposures are spot-on almost all the time.

I don't know what else I can say about this terrific camera. Yes, I would love to replace it with a Leica minilux, but considering what I paid and the results it returns, this will likely remain my P&S camera of choice for the foreseeable future. In fact, if it ever does break, chances are that I would simply go out and buy another one. Now if that isn't an endoresement of a product, I don't know what is.