Experience with Olympus µ (aka Stylus) Digital 600?

Long explanatory post: Question at the end:

As I said in the "What did you get for Christmas?"-thread one of the gifts I got this year was an Olympus µ [mju:] Digital 600, sold as Olympus Stylus 600 in the US. I've been complaining about the poor quality of my current digital camera (a cheap HP 435 that just don't work indoors), and this shows that my mother actually listens to my complaints ().

So to the problem: Even if I know that the Olympus camera is better than my current HP piece of...pooh, and that I love Olympus cameras in general (I have the old OM-1 35mm and a Centurion APS SLR both of which were (and are) fantastic), I've been a bit worried about some online reviews on the 600, so I don't know whether to keep it or return it for another camera.

The camera get overall very good marks, except on image quality where most reviewers gets a bit reserved. Some report a bit blurry images and most complaints about lots of noise on fast ISOs even from as low as 200 . The blur is OK, that's easy to fix with the sharpening tool in Photoshop (which also was demonstrated in one review), but the noise in pictures taken in low light levels worries me. Image quality is rather important to me.

One of the main points with this camera (which is going to be my main camera until I can afford the Canon EOS350D, or better ) is to take some nice family photos, most of which will be taken indoors. And if they turn out as noisy as some of the examples I've seen that's just not good enough. But, I also know that reviewers, in general, are a lot more picky than regular people, and even if I'm a bit more interested than the general public I'm in no way a professional photographer. This brings me (finally) to my question:

Does anybody have any experience with the µ/Stylus 600? And if so, how does the images indoors (and outdoors for that matter) turn out in normal, everyday use?

Thanks!

nxtort said:

my vote, stick with the 600, but if your not happy with it get something you like…
I hope that helps

Click to expand...

Thanks for that confirmation.

I needed that, because I actually caved some days after writing the above post o), after playing a bit with my brother's camera (he got the same camera for Christmas, too) at a family dinner.

So I unpacked it and did some testing indoors by night. Worked very well with flash and was even OK without that inside our living room. Did most of the tests with the camera on a tripod, though, still haven't tested it properly indoors under normal circumstances (e.g. taking pictures of my niece and nephew).

So I'm guessing I'm stuck with my third consecutive Olympus camera )), and since the first two has never let me down I have high hopes for this one, too, even if the reviews had reservations.

Still going to get that Canon EOS350D/Digital Rebel to really replace the OM-1/Centurion but no there's no rush (which suits my economy just fine ).