Stylus EPIC: Aspherical Lens?

[grainy_shadows]

i used a mju II for a 2 week holiday in hong kong, the af and automatic features are so convienient

too bad i got the champange model, would have prefered black

 

[rich815]

I've had two. An Mju II I bought in HK, and a Stylus Epic bought here in the states. For the $79 USD or so that you can buy one new they certainly are nice little cameras but to be honest I've never been overly impressed with the sharpness or character of the lens vs. what you can get by carrying a little better camera (maybe costing more but not always and not overall THAT much more when so). For example I find the XA results I get to be much better, and my Contax T2 blows it out of the water. The XA I got for $30 USD and the T2 for $175 USD. I also picked up a Vivitar 35EM a year or so ago and am much more impressed with it's lens. With patience those can be had for $30 USD or thereabouts on eBay. No the XA and the 35EM are no auto-focus but I find AF way over-rated and even suspect that might be part of my issue with the Epic/Mju!!

 

[dazedgonebye]

I've had two. An Mju II I bought in HK, and a Stylus Epic bought here in the states. For the $79 USD or so that you can buy one new they certainly are nice little cameras but to be honest I've never been overly impressed with the sharpness or character of the lens vs. what you can get by carrying a little better camera (maybe costing more but not always and not overall THAT much more when so). For example I find the XA results I get to be much better, and my Contax T2 blows it out of the water. The XA I got for $30 USD and the T2 for $175 USD. I also picked up a Vivitar 35EM a year or so ago and am much more impressed with it's lens. With patience those can be had for $30 USD or thereabouts on eBay. No the XA and the 35EM are no auto-focus but I find AF way over-rated and even suspect that might be part of my issue with the Epic/Mju!!

My XA experience is limited...even so, I'd have put the Stylus Epic right up there with it for sharpness.
Using 400 iso film forces fast shutter speeds and stopped down apertures in most daylight situations...making up for potential focus issues.
For my use of this type of camera, I very much appreciate the auto-focus.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

My XA experience is limited...even so, I'd have put the Stylus Epic right up there with it for sharpness.
Using 400 iso film forces fast shutter speeds and stopped down apertures in most daylight situations...making up for potential focus issues.
For my use of this type of camera, I very much appreciate the auto-focus.

I use ISO 200 color negative in the summer and ISO 400 in the winter in my compact cameras. Normally ISO 400 B&W.

As for the sharpness of the Stylus Epic lens: Olympus has used basically the same lens since the Trip 35. There is very little to improve in four element Tessar type lenses, as the design has been nearly perfect since the early 1960s. Contax and Yashica T series have the Zeiss T* coating, which does improve contrast somewhat. The Stylus Epic has the aspherical elements. They might give it slightly better edge sharpness, but that is about it.

Some manufacturers (at least Pentax, Ricoh and Nikon in some models) did use a five element true wide angle lens design in their prime lens autofocus compacts. I have the Pentax PC35AF-M and one of these days I am going to compare it to some Tessar lens compact. Perhaps the Yashica T3 would be a proper candidate, since I do not have any Contaxes.

 

[mfunnell]

I find the XA results I get to be much better, and my Contax T2 blows it out of the water.

Not sure about the XA - I find it about on par. I think the XA handles better and allows more focus control, though. I agree about the T2. But... The mju-II is smaller, lighter and I can put ISO400 film in it due to the 1/1000th shutter speed. That makes it my weekday "go everywhere" camera. The T2 and/or XA tend to be "weekend" cameras, often as backup and/or with different film from my main camera(s).

...Mike

 

[pvdhaar]

The only thing I ever found troublesome on the MjuII/StylusEpic, was the total absence of control over focus except for the focus/recompose dance. The lack of an infinity mode means it's a dog for shooting through windows. The sluggish AF response didn't help either in catching the moment.

But the portability was tops, and that goes for the lens too. Go figure, my only photo that ever was used commercially was made with a MjuII... It was just a matter of f8 (or whatever it decided it needed) and be there..

As per film, the lens is a 4 element one (1 aspherical), with very high contrast. It combines very well with a good 400 ISO film like NPH..

 

[btgc]

I have driven my first Mju to broken shutter button in five years with a lot of use (button trips without stopping down at half-press for prefocus). Thanks heaven bit before I got noisy DLX and now also another Mju w/ minor problem (on way). From time to time I conclude that it's on my TOP3, even if lens in-out moving slows down operation.