Olympus Mju Zoom Deluxe
Party camera—there has to be one, and this is the one.
When it's party time and the aggregated attention span of the group is 3 seconds, a camera with built-in zoom, flash, auto-exposure and auto-focus is necessary. Olympus Mju Zoom Deluxe, amongst all others, is the only one that checks all the boxes. (Nikon Zoom 600 as well, but it got a stuck focusing motor)
This camera originally belonged to my aunt and was given to me when she learned of my interest in film photography.
As the name suggests, this camera has built-in zoom from 28 to 80mm, flash, auto-exposure and auto-focus. Not sure about the aperture or shutter speed because it's not written anywhere, probably don't care as well being a party point-and-shoot camera.
The camera also has a dating feature that helps me find a girlfriend prints the date onto the negative. I have never enabled this feature because the small buttons for configuring the dating feature is so small I fears it breaks or I won't be able to turn it off.
To pick a worry-free, portable camera that I'd bring to any party, it has to be the Olympus Mju Zoom Deluxe. Unlike the typical, cheaply built point-and-shoot cameras, Mju Zoom Deluxe feels high class with its gold-color edges and slide-to-open lens cover. In the barely-sober party scenario, lens cover has a tendency to disappear.
The coated lens is able to perform well even when shooting directly into the sun and the auto-focus rarely misses when there's enough light and the subject is big enough in-frame.
Don't shoot landscape on this. Save shots for the party.
The flash is a life-saver both indoor and outdoor. When the sun can shine from any direction and the subject has to stand in front of the sun, the coated lens + flash combination work wonders to "just work".
Apparently, the auto-exposure looks at the middle of the shot, so flash may not fire if nothing is in the middle. Try not to be overly artistic in a party.
And zoom works.
