OM, I've become a Zuikoholic!

With the OM-4, you push a button to take a spot reading. It takes an instant reading of the area you have the center spot in the finder pointed at and keeps it in memory, with an indicator on the LCD inside the finder. This reading gives a middle grey exposure, like all reflected light meters. At this point, you can choose to push the highlight button or the shadow button if you wish. The highlight button adjusts the reading you just took to give an exposure two stops over the original indication. The shadow button gives an exposure 2 and 2/3 stops under the original indication. I never use the shadow button, it underexposes too much for my taste, but if you're shooting in autoexposure, the highlight button does give a nice rendering to whites that need to retain texture.

You have another option too. Instead of taking one reading and using it as is or using the highlight or shadow button, you can choose to take a second reading of a different part of the scene. The second and first readings wil both be indicated on the LCD and the camera will give an actual exposure that is the average of the readings! You can take up to 8 readings at once and get an average of all of them.
 
Just my .02, Keith. As someone who just went back to an OM-1n as a 'forever' camera, (with an OM-2n as backup) I found the 4 series to be too fiddely (sp?) for my taste, but in all probability, I'm just not that discerning a photographer.
I assume you've read John H's comments on the OM 4 in his repair section. Merry Christmas anyway.
 
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Incident meters can also be "misleading" if not used properly. I think it's entirely dependent on the user's skill and the type of work being done.
 
I think much too much is being made of what brand is "fungus prone". Fungus is entirely a product of how the lens is stored and under what conditions. Since we're talking manual gear that we've seen over our lifetime, we're talking old gear. Gear that has, by now, had plenty of time to be stored incorrectly by a previous owner.

And if we say that we've seen far more fungus on Canon or Nikon lenses, that may be due to the fact that there's probably 200 times more of those brand lenses out there than Olympus Zuikos. Olympus has always been a very small camera company, even in its more popular past.
 
This is my first post to rangefinderforum, and I've chosen to post on a subject near and dear to my heart - Olympus OM cameras.

I'd like to respond to Keith's questions about the OM-4, especially the metering.

An Olympus publication has in-depth information about using the metering capabilities of the OM-4. The PDF document can be found at www.zuikoholic.com/omlibrary/visionage_issues/VisionAge_01.pdf

I've had an OM-1 MD since 1979, and used it with a Zuiko 50mm 1.4 for over 20 years as my only camera. In that time, the meter needle on the OM-1 became a good guide, and with experience, I learned where to put the meter when taking back-lit pictures, pictures with lots of shadows, and so on. What I couldn't do, though, was take long exposures in the dark with any sort of accuracy.

The OM-4Ti can do that, and it does it right. It measures the light off of the film, and closes the shutter when the film has reached proper exposure. It can go on for several minutes. One night, I was taking a picture of a highway overpass, using the Auto mode on the OM-4Ti, and the shutter had already been open for over two minutes when a car came along the service road with its headlights aimed in my general direction. I was afraid the exposure would be ruined, but it wasn't. The camera closed the shutter at the right time and I got a fine exposure. There was some color shift in the film, but that is to be expected. The headlights just showed up as light trails across the image.

I still use my OM-1, and enjoy the simplicity and total control over everything about the camera. The OM-4T can be used in Manual mode, and can mimic the OM-1 functionally. But, there's a whole lot more buttons and knobs on the OM-4T. It isn't as simple a camera to work with as the OM-1. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not.

I do have a question, since you brought up the OM-4T at Zuiko.com. Aren't the champagne colored OM-3's and OM-4's for the ladies? Don't know why, but I just assumed that they were.
 
There is no Champagne colored OM-3, only black. The original OM-4 was also black only, and the OM-4T was originally champagne only for the first several years it was made, then a black version was introduced and soon the champagne one was discontinued and only the black OM-4T made. So no, it has nothing to do with the gender of the user. The champagne ones are older, the black ones newer.
 
plummerl said:
As an owner of both a champagne and black OM4-T, I can assure you that they both work well with a "male" owner!! :D
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I have two black and one champagne. I admit though that the champagne was bought for a girlfriend. When she left me for another dude, I kept the camera....it works just fine for me!
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I have two black and one champagne. I admit though that the champagne was bought for a girlfriend. When she left me for another dude, I kept the camera....it works just fine for me!
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...Like a bottle of bubbly left open, though, the finish on the champagne OM-4T sure did go quickly. I guess the paint and the titanium didn't mix well.
 
chippy said:
well yes of course, so can the thermometer used to check the xmas turkey be misleading if not used correctly, but all things being equal, assuming the user has some sort of knowledge (IQ in the region of using a waffle maker should be sufficient, as apposed to being able to operate a VCR :D) there can surely be no argument that incident meters are the most accurate meter and best tool for studio work e.g. still life and model work..the reflective is used when its not practicable to use incident or inconvenient . with the method Keith described as using a reflective meter for still life, an incident meter would be far simpler and more accurate by a long way
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My Sekonic 308s reads incident or refelective and while I agree that incident will give an accurate reading of the light in whatever area you read from that's not always what I'm looking for. I like to work with side light or indirect light a lot of the time and depending how I want the subject to be exposed a reflective reading is sometimes of more use to me where I may be seeking deliberate underexposure in the majority of the image!
 
chippy said:
normally Keith one would indeed want accurate readings, more so when you are trying to create and shape the light, normally you simply move the incident meter to the different positions to see the difference in f stops between them...thus creating your low key or underexposed areas precisely to the levels you wish...reflective metering is averaging what ever you are pointing it at (which is why spot meters are next best because of the smaller area metered) and largely relying on a roundabout, close enough, lucky dip or surprise endings...still, that can be half the fun in not knowing exactly what your getting,...more power to you, and its certainly not to say reflective cant be used...heck it can be done without meters as well. I'm simply relaying the normal studio methods that are commonly used and taught
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Luckily for me I've been taught nothing ... IMO most of my best pics have come from some incredible blunders! :p
 
Keith - you might not have been taught much but haven't you learned a lot, from experience! What comes over is that your gut instinct about lighting serves you very well. Can't think why you want an OM-4 or Ti. It seems to me from the results you post that you do quite well enough with your present equipment. I think you turn out some great pictures.
 
jesse1dog said:
Keith - you might not have been taught much but haven't you learned a lot, from experience! What comes over is that your gut instinct about lighting serves you very well. Can't think why you want an OM-4 or Ti. It seems to me from the results you post that you do quite well enough with your present equipment. I think you turn out some great pictures.
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Thanks ... but are you trying to destroy my justification for some serious OM-4 gas? :D
 
chippy said:
those happy mistakes are great, we all have them, but wouldn't it be nice to create/repeat and shape them at will though..none of the people that i taught in the studio considered themselves unlucky to have the extra knowledge, quite the contrary!
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I quite like the 'kaos' thing that happens at times Chippy ... but I agree that a sound knowledge of the basics is important.

Back to cameras ... I have to confess to considering jumping ship from Olympus to Nikon recently for my SLR shooting. I really like a couple of the features of the Nikon FM3A ... 1/4000 top speed manual shutter and the abilty to do multiple exposures without having to torture the advance mechanism are something I would seriously like.

But ... after holding an OM and gazing at it's lithe functionality the Nikon seems kind of butt ugly to me! :D
 
fdigital said:
It's not that great of a lens - get the 50mm f1.8 or 1.4 instead. or the newer 50mm 1.2
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I seem to remember seeing some pretty decent shots posted by you with that not so good 55mm ... nice subject though from memory! :D
 
reiki_ said:
what is so special about 55mm/f1,2 ? I'm trying to decide to get either her or 85mm/f2,0.
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Personally, I love the 55/1.2. I've taken a good deal of my favorite pictures using this lens, it's very narrow depth of field when shot wide open can give interesting, abstract effects.

I don't have the 85/2 lens, and I probably won't buy one as I already have a 90/2 macro. The 90/2 is one of the world's great lenses, if you can find one for a decent price, be sure to grab it, you won't be disappointed.
 
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