'New' Oly OM-20

jesse1dog

jesse1dog

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Just picked up an Oly OM-20 with standard 5cm 1.8 lens in quite nice condition. Waiting for some batteries to arrive and then off I go!
What experiences have others with this camera?
Strikes me as being considerably better than the OM-10 and seems to handle that bit differently to the OM-1.
j
 
Hi Jesse,

Good luck with the camera and enjoy it. While it belongs to the two-digit "consumer line" of OM cameras, it certainly was a much improved successor to the OM-10. It has a built-in shutter speed ring like all other OMs, which did away with the OM-10's need for an accessory manual adapter. The controls were enlarged a bit and also improved over the OM-10. The viewfinder displays more info, and it uses the brighter Lumi-Micron foocusing screen. It also allows use with a motor drive, I believe. A small add-on handgrip was also available.
 
My very first 'good' camera was an OM-G, which is the USA version of the OM-20. I did a lot of great work with it from the time I was 11 years old until I was 16, when the camera got broken in an auto accident. The screen in it is very bright and easy to focus, better than the screens in the high-end olympus models. Later on the same screen was issued in a version to fit the OM-3/4/4Ti/2sp models, but today its rare and expensive.

The OM-G/20 can use the motor drive and it does not use batteries too fast; I changed mine about once a year. The only downer to the camera is the exposure metering display, which only displays in full-stop increments. Ok for autoexposure (the auto system chooses in-between speeds when needed but doesn't display them), but for manual exposure it is too coarse, and the manual shutter speed display is not linked to the actual speed selected...it merely tells you what speed the meter recommends, but not if you have the right one set.
 
OM-20 (G) is better than the OM-10 (shutter re-design moves the electromagnet up front) but it still sometimes suffers from oil on the magnet. Okay starter camera, Maitani had minimal (if any) involvement. OM models designated with SOLID block letters (OM-1, 2, 3, 4) : Maitani. Those designated with hollowed out block letters on the top cover (OM-10, 20, G, F, 30, 40, PC) : no Maitani. John
 
Interesting that John reckons it to be an OK starter camera. I thought I might run it alonside my OM 1 as an automatic and just at odd times use the manual option.
I've now had a good look at the OM-20 and am amazed at both the condition of the body and the lens - both look virtually like new. The body number is 1287835 and the 5cm f1.8 standard lens 5650711. Is there a registery of these numbers to give date of manufacture? I presume the lenses fitted to the OM-20 were the same quality as those fitted to the OM 1 because of the availability of lens and body as separate items.
In addition to the camera and lens I got a lens cap, haze filter, and leather case - all in top condition - for £17, that's less than $30. At present I'm pretty 'chuffed' because the lens alone must be worth that. What did these cameras cost new?
But, and its always a big but, I 've still to put a film through.
Jesse
 
Does the lens say made in japan on the front ring? Not just japan, has to say made in japan (all in lowercase letters). If so it is from the last series of these lenses, which is the sharpest. I have two of the last version 50/1.8 Zuikos and they are incredibly sharp even wide open.

I think my father paid about $200 for my OM-G with 50/1.8 in 1986
 
Jesse, There's no database of Olympus lens serial numbers, they just kept going with the numbers across all the different lens lines. I believe they did the same with the body numbers, just kept going no matter what particular body was being made and there's no database for that either.

The way you can tell when an Olympus camera was made is by looking on the camera's hinged back, behind the pressure plate. You can usually just slide the pressure plate off and on by sliding it past the retaining pins. There will be a 3-digit code stamped there. Be careful, it's possible to wipe the numbers and letters right off with your finger! The first character is an assembly plant code. The second is the year ( for example- in your case a 5 would be 1985 ). The third character is the month. Jan-Sept is 1 to 9, and Oct, Nov, Dec is X,Y, and Z.

Of course, adding possible confusion to the mix is the fact that a camera's back may have been replaced at some point in time!
 
jesse1dog said:
Yep - lens says 'made in Japan' not just Japan.
I presume the capital lettered J in Japan isn't significant?

Jesse
Click to expand...

Is made in japan on the ring around the front element, or somewhere else on the lens? The last version says it around the front element retaining ring, other versions said japan only or sometimes no country on the front then had made in japan somewhere else on the lens
 
Yep - 'made in Japan' round the front element ring along with all the other lens information.
Looking on the 'dreaded Bay' I see that there are several of these lenes with the same inscription. If these are the 'best' lenses then there could be some bargains around.
Thanks for the info about 'behind the pressure plate' dating. I had quite forgotten about this although I sort of knew it applied to the Trips.
jesse
 
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Inspired by this thread, I put 24-roll of colour negative film through my OM-20 the other day, for the first time in years. The results were not at all pretty.

This was mostly through laziness and inattention on my part. I left a grungy old skylight filter on the lens, shot in circumstances prone to flare and used expired film which I had processed at a less-than-reliable one-hour lab. I didn't bother checking the filter before shooting - and it's an old cheapie I (should) use only to keep dust off for lens storage (it has a nasty magenta cast and eats a stop of light, aside from its now-corrected grubbiness) and I didn't bother to check the meter against a known good one before shooting in AE mode.

It turns out, having checked after the poor result, that as well as all the above the meter is overexposing by at least a stop and probably 1-and-a-half. The only thing I did check was that the batteries are supposed to be silver oxide, and I had loaded a fresh set.

So what gives with the meter? Any ideas? Is my copy just too old, and out of tolerance? (I know the OM-20 wasn't built as a "camera for the ages".) Does anyone know of any systematic issues? Or is my copy just, effectively, senile?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. While it's hardly critical (my OM-4T works just fine, thanks) there's some sentimental value to my OM-20 as my first "real" camera.

...Mike
 
Expired film, dirty filter, bad lighting. Does it matter if the meter's off? 😉 OTF meter could be overexposing, but with print film you could be +2 and still get acceptable results. Then there's the processing. If it's crappy, won't matter how good the negs are. Meter display in viewfinder is adjusted independently from the actual otf exposure. Could be oil on the magnet as it is an OM-20 (G). John, www.zuiko.com
 
John Hermanson said:
Expired film, dirty filter, bad lighting. Does it matter if the meter's off? 😉 OTF meter could be overexposing, but with print film you could be +2 and still get acceptable results. Then there's the processing. If it's crappy, won't matter how good the negs are. Meter display in viewfinder is adjusted independently from the actual otf exposure. Could be oil on the magnet as it is an OM-20 (G). John, www.zuiko.com
Click to expand...
Of course it doesn't matter (much) if the meter is off. That's why I confessed to all my sins up front 😱 I will be scanning the negs myself, just to see how much was their printing and how much actually shows itself in the negs (I suspect, though, that given all my sins, the negs won't be very good). It is nice to know that the OTF metering isn't the same as the VF display, as that means actual AE exposure might not be off (although that only adds to my embarassment over the test roll). I should have thought of the difference between OTF metering and VF display, so thanks for reminding me.

I'll shoot another roll, with more thought and under much better conditions, and see what happens.

...Mike
 
chippy said:
Mike i would agree with John, just too many variables to able to offer an realistic opinion..get those you can fix out of the way then work from there...if it matters seeing how you have a nicer model

i think it is karma because it was you wasnt that complained about the speed dial on the OM's 😀 😀

jk
Click to expand...
Yes it was me who complained. OTOH, I really like the exposure compensation on the OM-20 being just where a control over shutter speed "should" be (one that even turns in the "right" direction), so it seems a little unfair for that camera to be the one suffering some kind of problem. I'll be nicer to my OM-20 on another roll to see how it really performs without my bone-headed inattentiveness holding it back.

...Mike
 
Hi Chippy
Just done a check for you - the OM-20 screen seems the same size as the OM-1 1-13 screen. Not sure about the thickness but other dimensions the same. How do I know? I've a spare 1-13 screen and just got a screen from a dismantled OM-20 bag of bits I got on eBay. Wasn't what I wanted in the pack but there it was. Hope this helps.
Somewhere I read that the OM-20 screen can be got out by bending fixing tabs but that looks a very delicate exercise to me.
Jesse
 
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