Sonnar2
Well-known
It looks like RFF becoming the "unofficial" OM fan club in the last few months, so here a couple of questions for you. But not take it too seriously... 😀
From a casual OM user, not a "believer":
My first OM camera was the OM-4.
Latest modell, ten years produced, quite cheaply available, the ASA ring on the "right" place for guys like me who uses "other" cameras too - OK, the shutter speed ring is stil on the wrong place. Still right decision.
BUT: Do you really use all that metering stuff? "high" and "shadow" and "spot"? And if you do, how to manage it to photograph other than slow moving items than buildings, trees, or snakes?
I have difficulties to see all that micro-symbols below the finder, and never know in which "mode" the metering actually is. Except of course, I use "normal" metering. Or "manual" mode. (An OM1 would be enough for that) Or Automatic manual override (my finger nails are gone when using that feature, and perhaps a whole film is wrongly exposed 2 stops because you accidently set, or keep it wrong)
By another accident, I found out that the finder LIGHTNING is no longer working. (I'm sure it works when I bought the camera). It's one of very few SLR who urgently need a LIGHT in the finder. Mainly because the scales and signs are THAT small you barely can see them in bright daylight. Yes, scales. Ever had a car with that odd type of filling speedometer, no needles? Hot stuff in the 1950's, out of fashion about 1975 (I think VOLVO made one of the last). They ceased it for a reason: it's hard to see how fast the car actually is. It's also hard to see how fast the shutter actually should be on a camera. Bad luck that you MANUALLY engage the light, and the trigger is badly placed.
So starting on afternoon, or when taking pictures indoor, or in any other situation when exposure is critical, you see less or even NOTHING about it. Seriously, this camera has by a margin the WORST finder information system of all SLRs I know.
Plus: it eats batteries like a horse. Of all my 70 cameras this is the only one I need to reload batteries nearly EVERY TIME I go taking pictures with it. (Somedays, it is placed two months in a dark case. NO other camera will eat batteries under that conditions). To bad they lost the OFF switch! Or does Olympus made it even smaller than all the other micro fingernail tip contacts, that no user detected it in the last twenty years?
Bad luck too, the whole camera don't work without batteries. It lifts mirror (spoil one film frame) and then got stuck! When it happens the first time you think the whole camera is stucked and shutter needs to be replaced because NO other camera with dead batteries acts that way. all other just do nothing, decently saying "Sorry I cannot...." - this one screams "NOT ENOUGH BATTERY, IDIOT! CHOOOOKE!!" I'm sure I will hear that if I had the noiser activated (I deactivated this feature in order to save my batteries and nerves, due to the owners manual which I naturally own, and be able to read and understand)
Too bad, Olympus made everything in a different way than standard, say Pentax or Nikon. Too bad, making most of it worse than standard.
Was it TEN YEARS they build that odd camera, or even more? (TI included) ? Please understand me right: except the finder lightning, nothing may be defective with the camera. It just isn't right by design.
What was it, a serious case of unconvincibilty, like it was with Zeiss-Ikon?
Other companies doing it that way long enough may haven't survived completely. Good luck, just the OM system died, Olympus still alive. Make no mistake: film camera production wasn't ceased by a higher instance, just because customers in millions said "thanks, enough". Cosina still make film cameras with "new" (?) modells. Very sad for some of the best (performance-size/weight ratio) SLR lenses. But not so sad for very odd camera bodies. Too bad that a OM lens will not fit to a nice simple NIKON FE-2. If they had build such a camera maybe the OM series would be still in production.
I got a OM-1 these days.. 😀
*) I don't know if you native English speaking people have the term, "featuritis". For us, it simply means "too much of everything, or "every single engineer placed in the project had realized his personal highlight", either a lack of management or a "put this feature into it, too, it will attract a few additional buyers" attitude
From a casual OM user, not a "believer":
My first OM camera was the OM-4.
Latest modell, ten years produced, quite cheaply available, the ASA ring on the "right" place for guys like me who uses "other" cameras too - OK, the shutter speed ring is stil on the wrong place. Still right decision.
BUT: Do you really use all that metering stuff? "high" and "shadow" and "spot"? And if you do, how to manage it to photograph other than slow moving items than buildings, trees, or snakes?
I have difficulties to see all that micro-symbols below the finder, and never know in which "mode" the metering actually is. Except of course, I use "normal" metering. Or "manual" mode. (An OM1 would be enough for that) Or Automatic manual override (my finger nails are gone when using that feature, and perhaps a whole film is wrongly exposed 2 stops because you accidently set, or keep it wrong)
By another accident, I found out that the finder LIGHTNING is no longer working. (I'm sure it works when I bought the camera). It's one of very few SLR who urgently need a LIGHT in the finder. Mainly because the scales and signs are THAT small you barely can see them in bright daylight. Yes, scales. Ever had a car with that odd type of filling speedometer, no needles? Hot stuff in the 1950's, out of fashion about 1975 (I think VOLVO made one of the last). They ceased it for a reason: it's hard to see how fast the car actually is. It's also hard to see how fast the shutter actually should be on a camera. Bad luck that you MANUALLY engage the light, and the trigger is badly placed.
So starting on afternoon, or when taking pictures indoor, or in any other situation when exposure is critical, you see less or even NOTHING about it. Seriously, this camera has by a margin the WORST finder information system of all SLRs I know.
Plus: it eats batteries like a horse. Of all my 70 cameras this is the only one I need to reload batteries nearly EVERY TIME I go taking pictures with it. (Somedays, it is placed two months in a dark case. NO other camera will eat batteries under that conditions). To bad they lost the OFF switch! Or does Olympus made it even smaller than all the other micro fingernail tip contacts, that no user detected it in the last twenty years?
Bad luck too, the whole camera don't work without batteries. It lifts mirror (spoil one film frame) and then got stuck! When it happens the first time you think the whole camera is stucked and shutter needs to be replaced because NO other camera with dead batteries acts that way. all other just do nothing, decently saying "Sorry I cannot...." - this one screams "NOT ENOUGH BATTERY, IDIOT! CHOOOOKE!!" I'm sure I will hear that if I had the noiser activated (I deactivated this feature in order to save my batteries and nerves, due to the owners manual which I naturally own, and be able to read and understand)
Too bad, Olympus made everything in a different way than standard, say Pentax or Nikon. Too bad, making most of it worse than standard.
Was it TEN YEARS they build that odd camera, or even more? (TI included) ? Please understand me right: except the finder lightning, nothing may be defective with the camera. It just isn't right by design.
What was it, a serious case of unconvincibilty, like it was with Zeiss-Ikon?
Other companies doing it that way long enough may haven't survived completely. Good luck, just the OM system died, Olympus still alive. Make no mistake: film camera production wasn't ceased by a higher instance, just because customers in millions said "thanks, enough". Cosina still make film cameras with "new" (?) modells. Very sad for some of the best (performance-size/weight ratio) SLR lenses. But not so sad for very odd camera bodies. Too bad that a OM lens will not fit to a nice simple NIKON FE-2. If they had build such a camera maybe the OM series would be still in production.
I got a OM-1 these days.. 😀
*) I don't know if you native English speaking people have the term, "featuritis". For us, it simply means "too much of everything, or "every single engineer placed in the project had realized his personal highlight", either a lack of management or a "put this feature into it, too, it will attract a few additional buyers" attitude
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