Olympus mju300 highly recommended.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent quality photos, true pocket size, super battery life, water resistant.

Cons: Lens cover malfunctioned, flash not adequate, menu not intuitive, not webcam.

The Bottom Line: 
Buy it if you want excellent 4x6" prints in a small camera.

Author's Review
I did a great deal of research on cameras both internet and in stores and eventually decided on the mju300 (also called Stylus 300 in the US market). My main was print quality and compact size from a known camera supplier. I've had the camera for about 8 months and am delighted with it. It came with a 16Mb memory card. I purchased a 128Mb card which is more than adequate for my needs (160 photos on high quality and 50 on super high quality). The second highest setting is more than adequate for perfect 4x6" prints. I also purchased a spare Lithium Ion battery. In hindsight I probably don't need the spare battery because one battery lasts such a long time. I am usually careful to switch off the LCD display when not actually taking photos so this probably helps. I print 4x6" photos on a Canon S820 photoprinter and the quality is outstanding (I found the genuine Canon paper is much better than Kodak).

I haven't yet taken it to the beach or snow but that it one upside I see to it being water and dust resistant. I wouldn't purposefully get it wet but on the other hand I wouldn't freak out if I had to push the shutter with a wet finger on a ski glove.

The downside is that the lens cover has developed a problem where I have to be very particular in the manner I push it across or else the lens won't retract. I have not yet taken it into a dealer for repair.

The flash is not really adequate for night time photos. They come out OK but prints are a bit grainy.

The menu is not very intuitive but that doesn't detract from the value of the camera. It took a little while to get used to but now it is not a problem. I would prefer the Fuji style rotary dial.

The movie feature is a nice to have but the quality is very poor and it only allows something like 16 second movies. This doesn't worry me since I bought it for still photos not movies.

The guy at the shop did a real sell job on the xD memory card but it seems to have not taken off and is not as popular as the SD card. No major drama for me but if I buy an MP3 player or some other item which requires a memory card then it is unlikely to take xD.

One more thing is that it doesn't function as a webcam. This is a nice feature offered by the Fuji and some other cameras.

All round, the Olympus mju300 comes highly recommended for good quality prints from a pocket sized camera.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FEB 1st, 2004:
I've discovered why there are two model numbers for what was apparently the same camera. The Stylus300/400 is for the US market while the mju300/400 is for the Asian market. I bought the mju300 in Singapore and discovered that it will not interface with my TV in the US. So the difference is the stylus is for NTSC (US) format TV and the mju is for PAL format TV.

One further comment in relation to warranty, I contacted Olympus in the US to get a warranty repair and THE WARRANTY IS ONLY VALID IN THE COUNTRY IT WAS PURCHASED.