Home > Consumer Reviews > Olympus Mju 1030SW Digital Camera - Midnight Black (10.1MP, 3.6x Digital Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD

I restore classic cars and needed a tough camera for recording my work and taking photos for reference, one that could stand up to the harsh conditions of a hot, dusty workshop.
The 1030SW sounded perfect and it was a little more than i wanted to pay but chose it because of it's "tough" claims.
On day one without even using the camera it picked up a few scratches...not a problem but a bit surprising for a camera that is supposed to be able to take a bit of abuse. A week later the battery failed..this was replaced by the supplier but a battery should last longer than a week.
My biggest problem is the picture quality..it's on parr with a £39.99 camera. I have tried every setting and the pictures are grainey, have no depth and the colour contrast is appauling. I have started to use a 5 year old, cheap when new, digital camera as the picture quality is better.
Mine is going back to the supplier for a refund.

A very solid and well featured camera working well in all lighting conditions. My old mju 300 had a viewfinder and I don't find the absence of one on its newer stablemate a problem. Good battery life, excellent colour rendition and the underwater feature is a neat party trick that works better than I expected it to; the macro modes are also very impressive.

Agree with other comments about the flash on auto mode and the detailing on the buttons which can be hard to see. The shooting guide is excellent though and a great help if you can't be bothered reading manuals. Worth getting the XD card that is panorama enabled and the neoprene case is also a good buy. A spare battery would also make sense.

All in all, a highly recommended camera that lives up to expectations.

I sail a lot, and being able to have a small camera in my pocket (as opposed to the bulky waterproof casing I had previously) has been fantastic.

I can be completely relaxed if it is raining and I am using it in the boat, I was even relaxed when my brother had it in his pocket and took an unexpected dip over the side!

The pictures have come out great, I feel it is my ideal camera, small, waterproof, and great pictures. :-)

This is one brilliant camera! The pictures come out brilliant in any place and it is excellent fun underwater. It is great walking past people taking pictures at the edge of a pool/sea trying not to get their camera wet as you jump in with yours! Getting pictures right in the action! Only small issue I have with it is seeing the screen in bright sunlight. However with the 2GB memory card, you can take lots of photos and delete the poor ones later! Would highly recommend it! 5 Star.

I bought this camera as a tough point and shoot to take with me when walking out in the country, and on holiday.

I like the style, quality feel and features, and the water proofing and shock proof build I felt made it ideal for my purposes, plus I've always loved Olympus cameras (this is my third).

However the major drawback showed itself last weekend, out walking on a nice bright day the LCD screen was extremely hard to use, the image could not compete with the bright sunshine. This wouldn't have been a drawback, except that as with many similar compact cameras, it doesn't have a veiw finder.

This problem for me means that on nice bright days it's difficult to frame and take photographs, and I was very disappointed with the images produced. If it had a view finder I would have given this 5 stars.

I've ended up replacing it with a Canon Powershot, which is larger and not as tough (I'll have to be careful with it) but has a view finder.