![]() ![]() The Mju II seems to have been designed with aesthetics at the front of mind. The shutter button is a shiny ellipse that yearns to be pressed. It almost flows from right to left while sitting in your hand. Sure, it’s made of plastic and feels a little insubstantial, but it is sleek, sexy, and ergonomically perfect. The first thing I noticed when I finally got my mitts on one was how damn good this thing felt in my hand. It really is tiny too-you’d struggle to believe you can even fit a whole roll of film inside. It was one of the first cameras to offer a built-in flash mode for red-eye reduction. ![]() These instigators proved that none of the bells and whistles of modern-day digital cameras were needed to create the dream-like, hazy aesthetic of point and shoot film cameras that dominated the magazine covers and billboards of the '90s.įor a camera that is still ultimately a flimsy, plastic pocket rocket designed for casual shooting, the Mju II has developed an astonishing reputation. These snapshot-style cameras gained popularity after fashion photographers like Terry Richardson revealed them to be a secret tool of the trade. It was the amateur’s creativity tool, marketed as a pocket camera that would fit inside your pocket no matter how skinny your pants fit so you’d never miss a moment. And it quickly gained a foothold in the consumer market, selling over 20 million units in that decade. While these Zoom lens iterations are often more affordable and readily available, keep in mind that with zoom capabilities comes more moving parts that can and will eventually fail-bear in mind, these are 20-30 year old cameras we're talking about after all.)Ĭompared to it's predecessor, the little Mju II camera was sexier, smaller, and sleeker. ( Ed Note: Neither the original Mju I or Mju II feature Zoom lenses, though many models later released by Olympus under the "Stylus" naming convention do. Following this, the Olympus Mju II, aka Infinity Stylus Epic, was released in 1997. The Mju I was a slightly bulkier, boxier, classic Japanese-style, but still had the same slide-to-reveal lens cover feature that is so popular in the Mju II, and the same Olympus μ branding. The Mju II’s predecessor, the Olympus Mju I, aka the Infinity Stylus, was released in 1991 as the quintessential consumer-level camera, the kind that almost everyone had stashed in a bedroom box back in the '90s (and before that there was the Olympus XA rangefinder, a truly unique looking camera). Scroll on for a full hands-on review of the Olympus Mju II, a camera you're going to be itching to own by the time you're done reading. But is this point and shoot camera just another over-hyped Instagram prop, or are the aging Millennials really onto something here? I’ve been using the Mju II for just over a year as my daily shooter, and I’m here to break it down for you. Olympus Mju II prices currently range from $200 USD all the way to $750, and units are becoming harder to find in the secondhand market. The Mju II hasn’t quite reached this level of analog stardom yet, but it’s sure getting there, especially as 1990s and Y2k aesthetics continue to dominate the cultural zeitgeist. The dominance of this compact camera (and the many Zoom iterations that succeeded it) in the point and shoot market is matched only by the Yashica T4 and Contax T2, which are currently basking in celebrity status thanks to Zendaya, Kendall Jenner, and others, commanding secondhand prices reaching well into the thousands. The original Olympus ad promoted it as "the tiny camera for epic moments," and that tagline still rings true today. The Olympus Mju II, also known as the Olympus Stylus Epic, is a cult favorite point-and-shoot film camera that has skyrocketed in popularity-and price-over the past decade.
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