OM, I've become a Zuikoholic!

Yes, the shores of Lake Superior are a unique place. I've lived in Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, and Colorado, and always come back to the south shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. My favorite place in the world. I've yet to do the circle tour, maybe next summer. And the OM's will go too....
 
I've become a Zuikoholic as well. Today I bought a 35mmf2.8 lens to fill in my lens line-up, which is now 28f3.5, 28f2.8, 35f2.8, 50f1.8mij, 50f1.4 early, 100f2.8, and 135f3.5. Bodies are OM1, OM2, and 2 black OM1's. The good thing about digital, is that all this great old stuff is not expensive anymore. The 35mm lens was $18.88 today, and an OM1 with 28, 50, and 100mm I got for about $17 - the price of postage.
 
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jesse1dog said:
OM-40 is an interesting beast!
Nobody seems to consider one of these!!!!

jesse
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The OM-40 is known as the OM-PC in the USA. It is interesting, has program or aperture priority auto, plus manual and offers centerweight or ESP metering. ESP was a primitive multipattern metering system, worked surprisingly well for backlit scenes. I had an OM-PC for a while, its downfall was (as with many OM-models, unfortunately) bad electronics. It would randomly freeze up for no reason.
 
FrankS said:
I've become a Zuikoholic as well. Today I bought a 35mmf2.8 lens to fill in my lens line-up, which is now 28f3.5, 28f2.8, 35f2.8, 50f1.8mij, 50f1.4 early, 100f2.8, and 135f3.5. Bodies are OM1, OM2, and 2 black OM1's. The good thing about digital, is that all this great old stuff is not expensive anymore. The 35mm lens was $18.88 today, and an OM1 with 28, 50, and 100mm I got for about $17 - the price of postage.
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Wow frank, that's an incredible deal! Digital has made a lot of manual-focus film gear cheap, but unfortunately, OM gear is still rather high priced because it can be adapted easily to Canon fullframe D-SLRs so there's an unusual demand for it. Deals like you just got are quite rare for us Zuikoholics 🙁
 
Yes Chris, I was lucky. Once I started getting interested in OM gear and looking out for it, I found it.

Along the way I also acquired a couple of other OM1 bodies with 50f1.8 silver nose lenses, 35-70f4 zoom, and 3rd party 28 and 80-200mm lenses. These will be donated to the local high school which actually still offers a traditional photography course.
 
FrankS said:
Yes Chris, I was lucky. Once I started getting interested in OM gear and looking out for it, I found it.

Along the way I also acquired a couple of other OM1 bodies with 50f1.8 silver nose lenses, 35-70f4 zoom, and 3rd party 28 and 80-200mm lenses. These will be donated to the local high school which actually still offers a traditional photography course.
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Very cool. I remember in high school that a lot of kids couldnt afford even basic gear (one manual 35mm body and 50mm lens) and that was over 15 yrs ago. I graduated in 1994. Today must be much worse because everyone makes $8 an hour now (at least here in indiana they do!). My school owned NOTHING for the students to use. You bought your own or you didn't take the class. Its awesome that you're giving them the extra gear you have.
 
I tried the OM PC, but never owned one. The ESP metering was pretty innovative for its day, and I agree it worked well.

Frank, I think you'll really like the 35/2.8. Try it with some slow C41 or chrome.
 
Trius said:
Azza: how in the world do people find deals like that!??
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Well, those two deals happened within a week of eachother and it was a bit of luck..
However, I am constantly on the look out for OM gear, so it's only a matter of time really. Sometimes it takes a while though.
I try to look in not so obvious places also. I picked up a 24/2 and 50/1.4 in an ebay auction for old Ricoh gear (I saw the 2 Zuiko's in the photo). They ended up being extremely cheap.

Have fun!

This OM4 i'm using at the moment is great. However I think i might need to pay a visit to cameraleather. The covering is coming off and starting to get a little annoying =/
 
FrankS said:
Yes Chris, I was lucky. Once I started getting interested in OM gear and looking out for it, I found it.

Along the way I also acquired a couple of other OM1 bodies with 50f1.8 silver nose lenses, 35-70f4 zoom, and 3rd party 28 and 80-200mm lenses. These will be donated to the local high school which actually still offers a traditional photography course.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm just dense and y'all are just jesting. But it has nothing to do with luck. Once you know what you're looking for, you are suddenly more aware of deals that are already happening around you and on the big (and not so big) auction sites.

Good OM gears are plenty out there. Ironically, the only thing that I can't seem to land a good deal on is the darn 135mm :bang:
 
jesse1dog said:
OM-40 is an interesting beast!
Nobody seems to consider one of these!!!!
Click to expand...

I have to agree. There's something I find really appealing about them. I've got two at the moment and they get good use. The battery drain has never bothered me as I use a 2SP and a 4 as well, and they have the same quirk. I just take the batteries out when I'm not using them.
 
Yipee!!! My second OM-2 body arrived today. Now I have a silver & black body. Now to get started gathering some glass, I've placed an ad in the classified trade section, my Rolleiflex & other stuff for a 28/2 & 85/2........
John
 
A few other manufacturers made lenses and other accessories for OM:

Tokina, Tamron, Kiron, Sigma, Cosina, Vivitar (not really a manufacturer), plus some other off-brands such as Sun, Rokunar, Spiratone, etc.
 
Right. All the major manufacturers had their own lens mounts. If you are looking for a lens that fits the Olympus SLRs you need to find either Olympus Zuiko lenses, or the aforementioned third party manufacturers like Tokina,Tamron, Vivitar, Sigma. With those third party lenses you need the ones that say "for Olympus OM mount" or sometimes it'll be abbreviated as "OM" or even "O/OM" when discussing what cameras they will fit. This is very important with regard to third party lenses since those companies made lenses to fit just about each and everyone's lens mount.

Generally speaking, the Olympus Zuikos will perform better than the third party lenses as the third party companies usually manufactured for a lower price point. But, there are also different lines within some third party companies, such as "Vivitar Series 1" which are better than everyone's value line, and some say as good as anything out there.

But also beware that you should know exactly what condition any lens you are considering is in due to the fact that anything could have happened to them in the 35 years since some were made, and some amateur could have disassembled and reassembled it, or they could have stored it improperly such as in a damp environment, etc.
 
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I know that some of you have mentioned the OM-PC as a favorite user. I also owned two of them in the past but feel that most are now electronically troubled.

BUT- there's a "bargain" grade one listed at KEH.com for $23! $23?! Somebody please buy it before I think too long about it!
 
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