Olympus AF lenses- Any users?

[beegee675]

Anyone know what quality was engineered on the OM AF lens group? Are they comparable to the earlier OM system lenses? I know they're sort of orphans, but just curious if anyone shoot with these a lot? I've used a few recently with the OM77 just to see what that beast does, and I've come back with some nice shots. My guess is that no matter what body mechanics Olympus was into in it's whole line of cameras, the lenses were consistent quality?
BG

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

They were the same optical formulas, and are built as well as any AF lenses are (meaning more plastic than older manual lenses had). To me, the problem was that Olympus never made a good AF body. There's the OM-77AF, which was well made and designed, but it is program auto-exposure only! No manual, no aperture priority. Just program. Worthless to me. I always loved the OM system, and if they'd made an AF version of the OM-4, I'd have bought one in a heartbeat.

The fact that the one Olympus AF body sucks is the reason the lenses are so cheap, when manual Olympus lenses are still selling at rather high prices.

 

[beegee675]

Actually...

Actually...

... As I understand it, one could use older system lenses in aperature priority on the OM 77 as well as the OM 88 and get manual settings on the OM 88 with the manual adapter...

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

... As I understand it, one could use older system lenses in aperature priority on the OM 77 as well as the OM 88 and get manual settings on the OM 88 with the manual adapter...

Yes, but why bother? If you are using the manual focus lenses, you're better off using one of Olympus's manual focus bodies, which are smaller, have better viewfinders for manual focusing. The "power Focus" system in the OM-88 is cumbersome to use.

 

[farlymac]

I had an OM-88. Even bothered to chase down the manual adapter. Used it once, and then gave it away. Should have kept it to show as a dead-end product at camera club meets.

If you really want to play around with OM-AF, get an OM-F(30), and try finding lenses for that body. At least you could use the regular MF lenses on it with focus peaking, if the lighting was good enough.

PF

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I had an OM-88. Even bothered to chase down the manual adapter. Used it once, and then gave it away. Should have kept it to show as a dead-end product at camera club meets.

If you really want to play around with OM-AF, get an OM-F(30), and try finding lenses for that body. At least you could use the regular MF lenses on it with focus peaking, if the lighting was good enough.

PF

I actually have the 35-70 f4 AF lens made for the OM-F. It has haze inside the glass, so I never use it anymore. Back when it was in good condition, it was heavy, focused slow, and wasn't that great sharpness-wise.

 

[beegee675]

I have the 35-70 AF and the OM-30. When I first got the AF, I used it on a 2n body to see what it was all about and whether the sharpness was any good. I was impressed by the build quality, but after a roll or two, the jury's still out on the sharpness. If this lens was Olympus' only unique offering at that time, I would have thought it would be good. I haven't run a roll with it paired with the OM-30, but had to try it "dry" to see what the AF thing was all about. If you put on a motor drive set in multiple and attach the connecting cord to the camera, it shoots by itself at anything it focusses on! What situations would one use that for? I don't think any other camera I have does that...

Nice to know about the focus peaking thing with manual lenses... Love these early experimentations

 

[farlymac]

Well, you could use it for a remote set-up where a super long control cord is out of the question. Surveillance come into mind also.

I haven't used my OM-F because the mirror fell out of it after three activations of the shutter while testing it straight out of the shipping box. (Purchased used)

PF