Olympus are always looking for ways to develop their Mju digital cameras and after a streamlining and downsizing exercise, have come up with the Mju-mini. This slinky, 4-megapixel, purse filler offers more camera in less body, giving Olympus the perfect product to challenge Casio’s Exilim and Canon’s Ixus i ultra-compacts.

The all-weather body is less than 10cm long and weighs 115g and, to maximize its appeal to fashionistas, comes in six different colours. Gone is the manual lens cover, which is replaced with an automatic version that opens effortlessly when the camera is activated. The slimmed down design means you only get a 2x optical zoom, equivalent to 35-70mm lens on a 35mm camera, but an optional 4x digital booster is available. You do need to be a little patient with the autofocus and let the green light lock before shooting in order to avoid blurriness.

Still images are stored as JPEG files with resolution options ranging from 2272x1704 pixels to 640x480 pixels. Video footage is saved as a Quicktime JPEG and the sound uses WAVE format. The flash has plenty of muscle and can illuminate scenes up to 2.8m away, giving images broad coverage.

The manual mode functions increase the flexibility, and while they will never give you the creativity of a more serious camera, the 13 preset modes include settings for candles, fireworks and objects behind glass.

Verdict: Same lightning – smaller bottle.

Price: £190

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