Mju-Mju

Vavatch

2010-06-20T21:10:00.002+01:00

This blog is mostly closed. Future posting is at Vavatch.

Limassol

2006-09-06T22:02:00.000+01:00

Well, like I said in my post about the XA, I took some photos with the Mju while at the wedding in Cyprus. Nothing award-winning, but both photos remind me of wandering up and down Limassol's strip. I especially liked the palms on the roof of the hotel up the road. I stayed at the Arsinoe and had a great time. Thank you again, Fouey and Nick!

It's funny to think that the camera that took these bright, sunny, touristy photos is the same one that took this shot of Wenceslas Square, in Prague.

Olympus XA: the Mju's Mum

2006-09-02T19:00:00.000+01:00

The Mju is a great little camera: autofocus, autowind, autorewind, spotmeter... It does it all for you.

Aha, but... Suppose you don't want it all done for you?

Suppose, in particular, that you didn't want the Mju to use flash? You can turn flash off, but it doesn't stay off once you've closed the camera and, while it's the only thing about the Mju that annoys me, it does annoy me.

Suppose you wanted something like a Mju, maybe Mju-sized, that you could control a bit more? No flash. Aperture control. Manual focus. You have to go back in time a bit, but it's possible.

Enter the Olympus XA.

Like the Mju, the XA has plenty of fans online, so I don't have to say too much. It's a compact rangefinder, with a 35mm/f2.8 lens (sounds familiar?) as well as the same sort of lens protection as the Mju. You set the film speed and the aperture manually. You focus using the lever below the lens (see below). When you release the shutter, the XA sets the film speed for you. Point, click and wind. Size wise, it's about the same as the Mju. XAs were produced between the mid-'70s and mid-'80s.

Guess what? I just got an XA for all the reasons outlined above. The Mju isn't going to be retired by any means, but I have noticed that most of the best photos I take seem to come from the Mju, so I wondered whether it's just because it's a small camera and I seem to worry less about what it's doing and more about what I'm shooting. Who knows. Anyway, I'll post a few XA photos when I get them. Time will tell.

You can learn more about the XA at diaxa.com's XA page, at Camerapedia, and also at the XA page on Karen Nakamura's Photoethnography site. The Other Martin Taylor also has an XA page. These links will also take you to FAQs and a manual in PDF.

OK. Now to scan some Mju photos. It's been a while since I had anything to show, but now I have some from Cyprus. Any day now!

Masters Of Photography

2006-09-01T20:33:00.000+01:00

I've a roll from the Mju being developed at the moment, so maybe a new photo or two soon.

Meanwhile, I discovered the Masters Of Photography site. If you haven't been there already, go there now and browse around. There's a huge variety of work from photographers old and new. Well worth a visit if you are interested in photography.

Prague: Admiral Botel and the Vltava river by night

2006-05-10T21:45:00.000+01:00

Two more night photos from Prague. I did the same thing with these photos as I did with the photo of Wenceslas Square - flash off, put the mju on a wall, timer on, stand back.

The first is of the Admiral Botel - a floating hotel I stayed on. I had a cute little cabin. Lying in my bed at night, I could hear ducks quacking quietly outside the hull.

Olympus Mju-II, Ilford XP2

The other is of reflections on the river. I was walking back to the hotel around midnight and the reflections in the water were beautiful.

Olympus Mju-II, Ilford XP2

Prague: Wenceslas Square

2006-05-10T20:58:00.000+01:00

I went to Prague a few weeks ago. The first night I arrived, I went out for a walk. I headed up Wenceslas Square and ended up at the top end of the square, near the National Museum. In front of the museum is a statue of St (King) Wenceslas. I'm a complete sucker for the square. I've been to Prague twice, but before I was ever there, I remember seeing TV footage of the square in 1989, full of students and demonstrators, implementing the Velvet Revolution. Everybody clustered around the statue of Wenceslas. There's a photo of them here. In front of the statue, there's a plaque to Jan Palach, a student who set fire to himself in the square in 1968, in protest at the Soviet invasion. The square is to Prague what Place de la Bastille is to Paris. This is where the people protest and where governments are overthrown. When you ponder all of Prague's history and especially the two big events of the communist period, in 1968 and 1989, it's hard not to feel emotional when you're looking down at this historical, beautiful, revolutionary square.

So - my first night. It was late - maybe 11pm - and I only had the Mju. I headed up to the Museum, walked onto the first terrace and looked down on the square. This is what I saw. The square is actually more of a long rectangle. I wanted to bring back a photo of the memory. It's one of my favourite places in Prague. So, what's the best way to photograph this? What I did was this: switch off the flash, put the camera on the balustrade, point the camera out at the square, set the timer and let the Mju do its thing.

And this is what I got, which I reckon was the best photo I took in Prague. Click it for a slightly bigger version.

Olympus Mju-II, Fuji 400CN chromogenic b/w film.

On the print and maybe your screen, you can see all the way down the square. This is a very sharp print. I'm planning to blow it up to an 8x12 print and frame it. There's a bit of tourist info about the square here.

It is somewhat annoying - although predictable in some ways - that despite the money I have spent on cameras over the years and despite the fact that I can take the occasional good photo with an SLR or TLR, sometimes even guessing the exposures, the best photos often come from this lovely little camera.

The English Market, Cork City, Ireland

2006-05-10T20:38:00.000+01:00

I took this black and white photo from the Prince's Street entrance to Cork's English Market.

I'm from Cork. When I was a kid, this market was a dark, dingy place where people went to buy food at prices cheaper than the supermarkets. You could buy tripe, spare ribs, chicken, black pudding, fruit and veg, odds and ends. Customers were usually either the poor or people who were careful with their money. The ground seemed to be a sort of soft tar that had been ground into a dark substance over decades. Many people in Cork had their favourite stalls and might only go to the market to visit one market stall.

Nowadays, Celtic Tiger Economy days, the market has had a make over. The floors are tiled, the roof lets in light, there's a lovely cafe/restaurant upstairs. This is how it looks. If you visit Cork, go there.

Olympus Mju-II, Fuji 400CN (Chromogenic b/w film), handheld.

It's been a while.

2006-05-10T20:36:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a while. I haven't used the Mju for a while and when I did, I typically left half a roll in the camera. Recently, however, I seem to used it quite a bit. So for those of you who love the Mju, read on up...

The Flickring Mju

2006-02-05T15:14:00.000Z

If you're very clever, you can do a Boolean OR search on Flickr for photos tagged with either mjuii or stylusepic. Or you can just watch the slideshow from here. You'll need a quick connection though. This is a lot of content.

Portuguese Mjuser

2006-02-05T14:56:00.000Z

Had a nice comment on Mju-Mju from a guy in Portugal who carries a Mju around regularly. Several of the photos on the blog are shot with a Mju and often on Ilford XP2 film, which is also a favourite of mine. Others are shot on a Nikon. Nice photoblog and nice to see people using Mjus with XP2. Have a look.

Cropping can be good

2006-01-29T19:05:00.000Z

A quick crop and desaturate of one of the pics below and you get this. Which fills the picture more, I think. The Mju's viewfinder is offset and while I try to allow for this, in close-ups, it can be tricky to judge.

Then again, a "panoramic" crop can be fun too. The Mju's lens is sharp enough to let you play with stuff like this and still keep detail.

Paris... Mon amour II.

2006-01-29T14:47:00.000Z

Today's second Paris post. I don't spend a lot of time in churches as a rule (and that's an ideological rule, not just because I'm a backslider). However, I'm a sucker for St Chapelle, the famous church in Paris whose interior seems to have been hard-carved from stained glass. That's a lot of glass and two thirds of the glass dates back to the thirteenth century. I don't have any cameras that could do justice to this fabulous place and it's only thanks to Steve's wife, CJ, that I ever saw it at all. Last time I was there, I took the Mju and this is what I got. From what I can remember, I'd switched the flash off and had the spot pointing at the statue.

Paris... Mon amour.

2006-01-29T14:36:00.000Z

If you know me, you know I love Paris with a passion. These are two pics I took on my last trip. Both with the Mju. They're from the roll as the photo of the door in Tarragona below. These two ladies sit elegantly outside the Hotel de Ville - French for City Hall. If you look up at the City Hall behind them, you can see the basic principles of the French Republic chiselled into the stonework: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

Tarragona

2006-01-29T14:17:00.000Z

Tarragona is an ancient walled city about an hour's rail journey southwest of Barcelona, in Spain. During the Roman era, Tarragona - or Tarraco as it was then - was the leading city in the Roman province of Hispania and one of the leading cities in the Empire. The emperor Hadrian, famous for the wall built across northern England, was born here. It's still a gorgeous little town, full of history, museums, nice bars/cafes and things to see and well worth a visit if you're ever nearby. The history museum and the (free!) museum of modern art are especially recommended.

The pictures below show an ancient door I saw in a sidestreet. The b/w photo is a desaturated version of the colour photo. I like both. The film was Superia 200, which I am beginning to love with a passion. It's fabulous in bright light.

No sooner said...

2006-01-29T12:38:00.000Z

...than done. I have a new blog for medium format work. It's at http://6cmx6cm.blogspot.com/. It will include photos from the Lubitel, Holga and perhaps a couple from my old Rolleiflex.

Lubitel photos

2006-01-29T10:50:00.000Z

Yes, I know, I know, I'm drifting away from Mju-based 35mm purity. Anyway - I posted some photos I took with my Lubitel, which surprised me by how good they are. It took a while to get the hang of combining the magnifier with the ground glass and getting photos focussed, but once you do, they're pretty good for a Russian plastic camera bought used for £20.

This is an example of one. On the print the tree stands out from the background in an almost 3D way.

The rest of the photos are here.

Spammers

2006-01-28T10:34:00.000Z

Thanks to the moronic antics of some spammers who seem to think we're stupid enough to believe their rubbishy ads, all comments will now come through my inbox in future.

Thank you, Blogger. Nice feature.

While I'm at it, I really should post more pics. But I haven't used my little Mju much recently. Been using an F75 and a 45mm pancake and my Lubitel instead. Maybe I need a wider blog... New blog! New blog! :-)

A negative review?

2005-11-12T23:16:00.000Z

There's a so-so review of the Mju (alias Stylus Epic) over at http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/epic.htm. Admittedly a very demanding user. I've always been happy with the Mju, even in low-light. The way I see it, if it's a point and shoot, well, point and shoot and judge by results. But worth a look. I think we all know that Olympus isn't ever going to do a Mju-II+ when you can sell digital compacts for three times the price to people who are still only going to point and shoot, so there's not much point complaining now anyway.

Holga time!

2005-06-30T21:50:00.000+01:00

I suppose it was inevitable. I got a Holga. I've posted some pics on photo.net.

The Holga is a weird plastic medium format camera from China. It's famous for light-leaks and vignetting (dark corners round the edge of the photo). Nevertheless, it is capable of producing soft focus, dreamy-looking pictures. When they're good, they're very good. And I like the look.

For example... (click it)

More about Holgas. More.... Digital sucks. Or just google for "holga".

Another Mjuser...

2005-06-11T07:10:00.000+01:00

There's a guy called S.Liu on photo.net who does nice work with a Mju. And an XA (a Mju ancestor) and a Rolleiflex as well... While you're there, the Rolleiflex photos are well worth looking at. The Rollei in question is a 1932 vintage. When you get to S. Liu's page, browse down until you find the Mju section. Some of the galleries were taken using Ilford XP2 film, which I've been using recently as well.

Panorama.

2005-04-24T10:33:00.000+01:00

Speaking of panoramas... I've a link over on the right to a panorama taken with a Mju. You rarely see compact cameras on tripods, but the Mju has a tripod socket - as do most cameras - and there's nothing to say you can't use one.

More pics, less gear.

2005-04-24T09:58:00.000+01:00

It's the usual story: we get so involved with the camera that we take fewer photos. So, I've been looking through some recent pics and I found this one. The one here is a crop of the original - I thought the panoramic look suited it (and I can pretend that I have a Hasselblad (grin)). It was taken maybe half an hour before sunset at Lindisfarne, alias Holy island, which is off the northeast coast of England. The photo was shot handheld and as with every photo in the blog, the print is far better than the scan.

Lindisfarne, England

The posts visible are markers to help people who walk across the mudflats to the island, which is also linked to the mainland by a causeway.

A brand new Yashica 124G?

2005-04-23T08:47:00.000+01:00

Bit of a change from the usual posts. The 124G is a twin-lens reflex camera (a TLR). Nobody makes TLRs any more, with the exception of two companies: Rollei and Seagull. Rollei's Rolleiflex costs around two thousand pounds (that's heading for $4,000). There's also one with a long lens. Seagull's downmarket Chinese-made cameras cost maybe a tenth of that, but you get what you pay for. I have a late 1950's Rolleiflex and it's a fun camera to use, although the metering is a bit shaky. TLRs generally use medium-format 120 film (aka rollfilm), which gives you 12 shots per roll. The film costs around the same as 35mm film, but the negatives are 2-3 times bigger, measuring 2.5 inches or 6cm per side. With a good lens, a TLR can give you higher-quality large prints than any 35mm camera - or even than any digital. More here about the advantages of medium format cameras.

Anyway... I found out the other day that a guy in London has a supply of new, never-opened Yashica 124Gs. The 124G was a Japanese TLR. It has a great reputation, sharp lens, metering, etc. The guy's name is:

David Leung (Authorised Canon EOS PRO CENTRE)
34 Goodmayes Road, Ilford, Greater London, IG3 9UN.
Tel.: +44 (0)20 8599 6657 or 8590 3268; Fax.: +44 (0)20 8590 0293
Email: davidshleung - at-sign - msn.com

Anybody looking for a TLR has a new and intersting choice available.

Fixed lens fun.

2005-04-19T13:43:00.000+01:00

I've added another interesting article to the list over on the right hand side. It's a two-part article. The first bit outlines the differences between the original Olympus Mju-I and its successor, the Mju-II. The article then explains in simple terms why having a fast fixed lens has advantages over having a camera with a zoom lens. The big advantage is lens speed: the Mju's f2.8 lens lets in more light which is handy in low light situations, such as evening or indoors. And many of the great photographers, like Cartier-Bresson and others won their awards and did their work using a camera with a single lens. The Mju's normal-to-wide 35mm lens is not that different to what they used, although I must admit that a Mju with an f2.0 50mm lens would suit me even more. I've never seen a compact camera with an f2.0 lens, apart from Konica's Hexar, which isn't made any more and which is a little dear. And the Mju's faster shutter speeds make up for the fact that it's a slower lens. Dante Stella has a review of the Hexar on his site, which is always worth exploring.

AnjaPhoto

2005-04-19T13:29:00.000+01:00

A much-overdue plug for my friend Anja's photos, many of which were taken with a Mju. Msg for Anja: Mr Darcy says "Hi" to Vinnie.

Going chromogenic

2005-04-15T21:05:00.000+01:00

Been playing with chromogenic film on the Mju recently - Fuji's 400CN. Chromogenic film is black & white film that's processed like colour. Which means you can get it developed in any lab, like Jessops or Boots and at the same price as colour. It doesn't look that bad, in my opinion... And the Mju is quite happy with it. Kodak, Ilford and Fuji all do this sort of film. Ask in a camera shop. I've seen arguments online to the effect that it isn't proper film, it doesn't look right and it's not proper - all possibly because you can get a nice black and white effect without half-poisoning yourself in your bathroom, pretending that darkroom photography is proper photography. It's 90% as good, in my opinion. But hey, what do I know?

Fisherman, shingle beach,
Folkestone

Regent Street,
London

The Stade,
Folkestone

And another!

2004-12-28T17:08:00.000Z

I can see this becoming obsessive. Right - I still have a lot to learn about scanning, as the print of this photo far surpasses the scan. But it's a start. I took some photos of this area with the Nikon FE using the 35mm/F2.8 lens and with the Mju, which also has an F2.8 35mm lens. I've been just as happy with the photos of this area from the Mju as with those from the Nikon. Where was the photo taken? Point du Raz, Brittany - find Quimper on a map of western Brittany and look further west. P du R is at the tip of the nearby peninsula. Just south of the Baie des Trépassés, which translates as "the Bay of the Dead".

We have pictures...

2004-12-28T16:54:00.000Z

Right. Now that I have webspace again, here's some proof of how well a Mju can cope with a close-up. This is from a mural in a nearby street in Folkestone's Old Town.

1 Mju, 500 rolls of film...

2004-12-10T21:48:00.000Z

A self-portrait project, using a Mju. The Mju gave up after 500 rolls of film. Have a look.

35mm or 50mm?

2004-09-19T23:24:00.000+01:00

Just back from a week's holiday in Brittany. (Yes, thanks, I'd a great time).

Took two cameras: my recently-purchased Nikon FE and the Mju. A few interesting things occurred to me - well, they interested me, anyway.

One was that the Mju fits very nicely in the fold down arm-rest between the front seats. I'd never known this. I lost it for a few hours until I remembered where I put it. Just goes to prove how small it is.

The other? Nikon Lessons. This is Mju-relevant...

I brought 3 lenses for the Nik: the 35mm/f2.8 (came with the camera), a 50mm/f1.8 and a 135mm/f3.5. I bought the latter two secondhand before I went on holiday.

I hardly used the 135mm. It's handy but heavy. I already knew this, but it's good to be sure. Most of the time I used the 50mm, because I like 50mm's. I'd dearly love a 50mm Mju-II. Occasionally, I'd use the 35mm lens - it was handy in narow Breton streets where you can't back away far enough to get the details you want. But when I wanted a 35mm shot, it was often a toss-up between the Mju and the FE. After a couple of days, I more or less stopped using the 35mm on the Nikon. It's the same speed as the Mju and the Mju sits in a little holster on my belt. So I carried the Mju on my belt and the Nikon with the 50mm over my shoulder and used whichever I wanted. I like the one camera, one lens philosophy. OK - so I can't choose between cameras! I know, I know...

I was thinking about all this and then I happened across Dave Beckerman's site, which has some great tips. The tips are mostly to do with black and white photography, but he makes two points which stood out.

1. One is to start with a simple camera with one lens (35mm or 50mm).
2. Make sure it's one you have some control over.

Now while the Mju isn't a clever SLR, you can do a lot with it. You can turn the flash on and off. You can use the spotmeter. You can set the timer (handy for tripod work). You can put it on a tripod for night shots. You can use a very wide variety of film in it. And you can take pretty good photos on it. Despite having a nice Nikon and a great 50mm lenses, I would have been pretty unhappy without my little Mju. There were times when I didn't want to drag an SLR (when it was raining, late at night on deserted streets, when I was carrying other stuff). The Mju just sat on my belt and didn't get in the way. Neat. It gave me a handy alternative to the nikon without making me feel I didn't have a good camera to hand.

Look behind you

2004-09-10T08:52:00.000+01:00

Not the first time I've noticed this... I tend to take photos as I walk. Which means I take photos of what's ahead of me. It rarely occurs to me to look back at the scene I'm passing through, to see if I've missed something. DId that on my amble this morning and got a few extra shots from that. One to think about in future and despite only bringing the FE, this tip would work with any camera.

Heavy system

2004-09-10T08:44:00.000+01:00

Took my new Nikon FE out for a walk in the harbour this morning and brought all three lenses (35, 50, 135). While I found myself swapping the 35 and the 50 occasionally, I hardly used the 135. An 85mm would have been handy though. And while some of you (are there any of you?) are saying "Buy a zoom!", the point is that because of low light I was occasionally shooting at F4, where the prime lenses are pretty sharp but the zooms aren't. But I must admit that the thought did cross my mind. If I'd had 400 film instead of 200, a small zoom would have been good.

Most of the time, I used the 50mm. As the FE's a recent acquisition, I'm just playing round. I must say that swapping lenses seemed easier on my Praktica. Perhaps because the Nikons screw on in the opposite direction. This doesn't sound like much of a problem, but try it sometime. However, focussing the Nikon's just a little faster.

I can see the 135mm becoming an occasional portrait lens. And I can see one of those old 43-86mm zooms appearing on the doorstep sometime.

Anyway, a good morning. Well, it was until it started raining, which finished my shoot.

Pre-focus for best results

2004-08-30T07:03:00.000+01:00

Some of the reviews on the Mju complain about blurry photos. I've hardly ever had this problem. The answer is to pre-focus. While you can whip your Mju out of your pocket or its little belt-holster (very James Bond) and start shooting instantly, you do need to pre-focus.

To do this, point the Mju at your subject. Wait for the focus light in the viewfinder to go green; then shoot. You can also lock the focus in place: press the shutter button down half way, wait for the focus light to go green, then shoot.

Locking the focus is an acquired skill. Playing with the shutter button can take the photo unexpectedly, until you're used to how much play there is in the button. You can get the feel of the shutter buttonmost easily when the camera's closed. Mine was quite firm when I bought it first, but it's a little looser now.

Travel with a camera

2004-08-29T18:01:00.000+01:00

Just been reading a great article on travel with cameras on Dante Stella's site. While most of the article is relevant to people who travel with more serious cameras than Mjus, there are things in there for compact camera users too. Well worth reading, especially if you use more than a compact.

Tomorrow - Monday - is a holiday in the UK. And I have Tuesday off as a leave. Yee-haw.

Great tips for compact cameras

2004-08-28T14:08:00.000+01:00

Every so often I re-read Philip Greenwood's tutorial on using a compact. It's on photo.net. Some great ideas in there, especially on the creative use and non-use of flash.

Reading the comments following the tutorial, you can see that many people become obsessive about the camera, not photography. Many of the threads on photo.net deteriorate into a "My lens is better than your lens because the manual says so" monologue (a problem that's not limited to photo.net either). I love my Mju, but mostly because it fits in my pocket. Most of my other cameras don't.

As I'm on the subject of compact camera tips, Photo Secrets is pretty good too. Searching Google for "compact camera tips" gets you lots of pages like these.

Have it on you

2004-08-28T00:31:00.000+01:00

I missed a photo the other day. I was walking through Waterloo Station in London. On the walkway leading to Waterloo East, I saw a woman standing in the path of three broad beams light coming through some windows, reading a newspaper. It was a lovely moment. The light was amazing. Where was my camera? At home...

Have it with you.

And see the other tips as well.

Mju-Mju

2004-08-26T13:41:00.000+01:00

A blog in the making. I've always loved my little Olympus Mju-II compact camera. There's a lot of snobbery against compact cameras (you're nobody if you don't use a Leica - although even Leica make compacts), so I'm going to try to get some compact camera resources and other Mju sites together.