Olympus stylus epic aperture

dylan77 · Oct 10, 2019

I am looking at buying the Olympus point-and-shoot camera, and wanted to see if anyone here has one.

The aperture ranges from 2.8-11 but there is no way to actually change it manually, and I will mainly be using it for shooting 2 people to small groups

For this purpose is this camera not recommended?

AgX · Oct 11, 2019

Your choice of the stylus Epic (mju) shows that you want low volume camera.

To gain control of the aperture, consider a low volume model with aperture-priority auto-exposure. As for instance:

-) Olympus XA

-) Minox 35 EL (or a later model with aperture priority)

(However the XA is said to be more reliable than the 35.)

AgX · Oct 11, 2019

dylan77 said:
I will mainly be using it for shooting 2 people to small groups

If you are good at guessing distances (easy to train) or use a camera with a rather wide-angle lens you typically do not need small apertures, respectively control on aperture. (Depending of course how you "groups" are built-up, flat row or a flock of people...)

And even if so, you need some understanding of depth of field anyway. (The Minox 35 EL yields a depth-of-field scale.)

pentaxuser · Oct 11, 2019

OP I may be misunderstanding your concerns about the mjuII and shooting small groups of people but I presume that you will be reasonably close to them as they are the main part of your picture. In which case you simply ensure that the black focusing cross is on one person in the group and the camera ensures that the group is in focus.

It may be that depending on the programme which governs how the camera decides on aperture that some of the far-away background will be out of focus This is often desirable anyway to concentrate the picture on the people. However if you want control over the camera then the mjuII may not be the best one

On the other hand for groups of people at Christmas parties or otherwise in confined spaces and indoors this can be a great camera. It even takes care of deciding if flash is needed.

pentaxuser

blockend · Oct 11, 2019

I own the MjuII (Stylus Epic) and the XA3, and find the latter a better all-rounder. For your purposes it's important to focus on one person and recompose, while keeping the shutter half pressed. Otherwise there's a possibility you will focus on the background between two people. Zone focus XA cameras are a compromise, but one that suits their purpose of general snapshot and street photography. The MjuII retains an open aperture longer than most other compact cameras, while raising shutter speed. This necessitates higher speed film if you want a reasonable depth of field.

dylan77 · Oct 11, 2019

AgX said:
Your choice of the stylus Epic (mju) shows that you want low volume camera.

To gain control of the aperture, consider a low volume model with aperture-priority auto-exposure. As for instance:

-) Olympus XA

-) Minox 35 EL (or a later model with aperture priority)

(However the XA is said to be more reliable than the 35.)

The overall quality of these cameras though don’t compare, so I may need to move up into the contax or similar that have manual or aperture priority

dylan77 · Oct 11, 2019

AgX said:
If you are good at guessing distances (easy to train) or use a camera with a rather wide-angle lens you typically do not need small apertures, respectively control on aperture. (Depending of course how you "groups" are built-up, flat row or a flock of people...)

And even if so, you need some understanding of depth of field anyway. (The Minox 35 EL yields a depth-of-field scale.)

A point and shoot though has a fixed lense. I use a different camera for that, that is a DSLR

AgX · Oct 11, 2019

dylan77 said:
A point and shoot though has a fixed lense.

That is not related to what you asked about, nor what I advised.

dylan77 said:
The overall quality of these cameras though don’t compare, so I may need to move up into the contax or similar that have manual or aperture priority

You came to Apug calling yourself a newbie on film photography. Nevertheless you got already a stand on what is good and what is not.

I shall refrain from giving you further advice.

bernard_L · Oct 11, 2019

I have used at one time or other Oly Stylus Epic (at least one dozen films), Minox 35 (at least one dozen films), and Olympus XA. My go-to small camera is the Stylus Epic (Mju-II here). With Minox 35 I need to think twice: is my distance estimate correct? (it is, most of the time), and the camera needs to be handled with some precautions. Oly XA, viewfinder is a little cramped, there is no single eye position where one sees all four sides of the projected framelines; and there is this rumor that for the sake of compactness, the (retrofocus) lens has degraded quality at max aperture (although I have no first-hand evidence of that).
Yes, with autofocus Stylus Epic, you need to aim at main subject, half-press, and frame actual composition before full shutter release; longer to say than to do. Full automation allows me to deal only with composition. When I want full control, I use Oly 35RC in manual mode. Or Retina-IIa. Different cameras. And different persons have different preferences, so there is no unique advice.
So, If you have decided upon a Stylus Epic I might have one available; PM me if you are interested. But because of postage costs, I advise you to look first in Oz, possibly also in Japan. And to be patient to obtain a good deal on the auction site.

pentaxuser · Oct 11, 2019

bernard_L said:
So, If you have decided upon a Stylus Epic I might have one available; PM me if you are interested.

Based on subsequent posts from the OP I feel he had already ruled out the Stylus Epic. In fact had he made his position clearer I wouldn't have bothered to give advice on the Epic/mjuII

pentaxuser

MattKing · Oct 11, 2019

There have been millions of very fine photographs taken with the Olympus Stylus Epic, and it is particularly well suited to photographing small groups of people at gatherings.
A more complex camera, with added manual override capabilities, will add more flexibility in other situations, but it probably won't give materially better results in most cases when photographing small groups of people.
The Stylus Epic is easy to use. Practice with it should improve the photographer's skills.
It is the operator, not the camera, that matters the most.

dylan77 · Oct 11, 2019

blockend said:
I own the MjuII (Stylus Epic) and the XA3, and find the latter a better all-rounder. For your purposes it's important to focus on one person and recompose, while keeping the shutter half pressed. Otherwise there's a possibility you will focus on the background between two people. Zone focus XA cameras are a compromise, but one that suits their purpose of general snapshot and street photography. The MjuII retains an open aperture longer than most other compact cameras, while raising shutter speed. This necessitates higher speed film if you want a reasonable depth of field.

Thanks that’s very helpful

ic-racer · Oct 11, 2019

dylan77 said:
....point-and-shoot camera... but there is no way to actually change it manually....

If you could manually change the aperture, a camera probably would not be considered 'point and shoot' would it?

dylan77 · Oct 11, 2019

ic-racer said:
If you could manually change the aperture, a camera probably would not be considered 'point and shoot' would it?

Yes partly true, though contax’s t2,t3, have the ability to do this, and for what I’m shooting I need. If it wasn’t something work related I probably wouldn’t mind.

AgX · Oct 11, 2019

blockend said:
The MjuII retains an open aperture longer than most other compact cameras, while raising shutter speed.

Interesting observation, as program automation with such cameras typically is kind of enigma to us, unless one does a test on this. What likely we should actually do.

Les Sarile · Oct 11, 2019

dylan77 said:
For this purpose is this camera not recommended?

There is no purpose for this camera that is not recommended.

blockend · Oct 12, 2019

AgX said:
Interesting observation, as program automation with such cameras typically is kind of enigma to us, unless one does a test on this. What likely we should actually do.

The MjuII/Stylus Epic had an exposure chart. Had one from new, mine succumbed to a sticky focus mechanism a year or two ago, a not uncommon fault apparently. Someone posted the diagram on here if I recall correctly. The prices they sell for currently is silly, but the market (naivety and hype) decides these things.

AgX · Oct 12, 2019

I never paid more than 3€ up to today. But then I never got such exposure chart....

pentaxuser · Oct 12, 2019

blockend said:
The MjuII/Stylus Epic had an exposure chart.

Where is this exposure chart found? I have the instructions for the mjuII but cannot find anything that looks like an exposure chart.

Thanks

pentaxuser

Les Sarile · Oct 12, 2019

pentaxuser said:
Where is this exposure chart found? I have the instructions for the mjuII but cannot find anything that looks like an exposure chart.

Thanks

pentaxuser

Towards the bottom of the review -> https://antiquecameras.net/olympusstylusepic.html

blockend · Oct 12, 2019

pentaxuser said:
Where is this exposure chart found? I have the instructions for the mjuII but cannot find anything that looks like an exposure chart.

Thanks

pentaxuser

It has been posted somewhere on the internet in graph form, not enough time to Google at the moment. In support of what I said, a quote from this forum on the camera:
"With 100 speed film the Stylus almost always sets the aperture full open (It even wants to use the flash under pretty bright evening light). Olympus put a great f2.8 on the Stylus, but no lens is at its best at full aperture.
This was a real change from Olympus' earlier programmed exposure cameras. Olympus had always opted for smaller apertures and slower shutter speeds. It's likely that with the advent of auto-focus, they figured the depth of field was not as important. "
Edit: Les Sarile got there first.

pentaxuser · Oct 12, 2019

Thanks Les for the link and blockend for the quote from the forum and for trying to recall what the article was. It was illuminating. I was just a little surprised that the author didn't mention the difficulties or near impossibility of using filters with the camera for b&w films.

I suspect that it was made during that era when most users of film who wanted P&S cameras were using colour. The other thing I think I have noticed is what appears to be a lag between focusing, pressing the trigger and the shot capture.

Not normally a problem for close people shots but I used it recently for an action shot on a soapbox derby race and by the time I had lined up the cross with the soapbox and took the shot the soapbox had passed beyond the camera's field of view. The negative shows an empty road It was on a bend in the road and the soapbox was probably doing 35mph and my technique may have been lacking. It sounds as if the key here would be to choose a point in the road where the moving vehicle passes, focus on it with the button half pressed and then press the button fully as the vehicle goes through that point

pentaxuser

Les Sarile · Oct 12, 2019

pentaxuser said:
Thanks Les for the link and blockend for the quote from the forum and for trying to recall what the article was. It was illuminating. I was just a little surprised that the author didn't mention the difficulties or near impossibility of using filters with the camera for b&w films.
pentaxuser

As photographers, we are probably most capable of dealing with compromises and more able to adopt tools to get the job done even if it were never intended for the job . . .

blockend · Oct 12, 2019

pentaxuser said:
The other thing I think I have noticed is what appears to be a lag between focusing, pressing the trigger and the shot capture.

That's the main reason I moved to zone focus cameras like the XA3. Most AF point and shoots of the era were laggy, and the delay varied from annoying to virtually unusable. The mjuII was far from the worst, but still didn't lend itself to spontaneity especially when default to flash and the off timer are taken into consideration. Earlier P&S cameras were only limited to how fast you can turn the wheel/wind the advance lever.

Olympus stylus epic aperture

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