We had mixed initial impressions of the Olympus Mju410. For starters we couldn't even decide what to call it, as the packaging and manuals refer to the µ [mju:] 410 Digital, which is a ridiculous mouthful. Presumably that would be the Micron 410 Digital, but let's just call it the 410 and be done with it.
Then we looked through the contents of the box and were aghast by the number of 'getting started' guides and manuals. In total there are fourteen of the things thanks to the multilingual nature of this modern world, yet we were unable to find an explanation for the tiny remote control that was included in the package.
After we had plugged in the battery and inserted the tiny 32MB xD card we were ready to rock. For starters we had to figure out that remote control, and in the depths of the self-timer menu we found an option with a strange icon that looks like a bolt of lightening.
Yes, that's the option to enable the remote control. You stand in front of the camera, click the button and two seconds later the 410 takes a photo. This is an ingenious idea, but we have to wonder just how many camera owners will use this facility, particularly as the manual doesn't spell it out.
The 410 is a beautifully constructed piece of hardware with a metal casing that feels very solid, yet it weighs a reasonable 195g and is only slightly larger than the Canon IXUS. On top of the 410 body there's a label that proclaims it is 'all-weather' and the various covers over the battery and xD card compartments, and the power connector all have rubber seals to keep rain and sand at bay.
As the lens retracts behind a sliding cover you can be confident that the 410 is as likely to withstand rough treatment as most other cameras on the market, but it's not weatherproof and the manual warns that you should not wash the camera in water. This is sound advice, but it's tragic that the end-user may need this sort of advice on an electronic device that costs well over £200.
Most of the controls on this camera have dual functions so it can take a few seconds to figure out how to navigate the menus and settings, however the options listed on the 1.5-inch screen are very clear and help you to sort out your settings quite quickly.
The feature list of this camera is quite mainstream with 4-megapixels and support for PictBridge, and of course Olympus has a solid reputation in the world of cameras, so we were looking forward to seeing how the TruePic Turbo image processor would perform.
It came as quite a surprise that the 410 produced rather poor photos, and close up shots in particular were out of focus. Although longer-range photos came out reasonably well they weren't particularly good.
Picture quality was helped when we stopped using the Auto setting and changed to the appropriate profile (Portrait, Exterior and so on) but the photos that we took indoors were rather grainy and lacked definition.
The best photos we produced were taken outdoors using the flash, but overall we were rather disappointed by this camera.
