saw an Oly OM-4T, oh my!!

[MRohlfing]

I had one for 4 years, but did not use the spot very often, the automatic exposure was working too well. Took it with me on a long bicycle trip, which was not a good idea. A little hole in the ground, a little hole in the skin on my knee, a little malfunctioning OM-4.... I sold it fur MUCH less than I had paid for it.

Before and after I used a OM-2n for 20 years as my only camera, until it started falling apart.

That was before I discovered RFF and GAS, though....

 

[Keith]

Once the OM bug takes hold it's hard to shake. I just got another lens in the mail yesterday to add to the ever growing collection ... I now have:

28mm f2.8
35mm f2
50mm f1.2
50mmf1.4
two lens caps that came with bodies ... (50mm f1.8)
85mm f2
135mm
200mm
and a 35-70 zoom

I agree that the OM-1 is probably the quintisential OM body and the OM-2 possibly the best for usability with it's excellent AE capabilities and give away price.

[edit] ... I think the 35mm f2 and the 85mm f2 are two of the best lenses on the market in any camera format if your talking bang for buck!

 

[mfunnell]

I had an OM-4 which was stolen. I loved that camera - it worked fine for manual exposure, its Av auto-exposure worked great and I personally liked the spot metering system for lower-paced work (think tripod and Kodachrome 25). The controls were like 2nd nature to me. And even though I wasn't doing much photography at the time, picking it up was like meeting an old friend where you pick up the conversation as if time hadn't lapsed. And then it was stolen I couldn't find (or, probably, afford) a new one and this was way before eBay and similar. I had to make do with an OM-20 for a while, which just isn't the same thing.

So when I found a beat-up but functional OM-4T in Hong Kong I was well pleased:

[This was the first photo I ever uploaded to Wikipedia. An article about a camera with no photo! What's with that?]

It didn't stop me for haggling for months, though, until I got down to at least local gweilo prices rather than the tourist price he was after. And guess what, its still like an old friend. Despite my new-found love of RF cameras and my use of dSLRs for wildlife work, this one still gets the occasional outing. Its still a fine camera and I still like multi-spot metering for slower work (and the highlight or shadow spot metering for faster work as well).

...Mike

 

[ChrisN]

Chris,

I DID tell them that they were dreaming... they woke up and we settled on $550 AUD....

I did have an OM-1 and some lenses... sold them... missed them... hope this OM-4Ti will keep me busy for a while.

The kit was the champaigne OM-4Ti with the Zuiko Macro 50mm f/2.

Just hope that if/when I decide to sell the kit (or break it up), I'd be able to recover similar $$$ for it.

You grabbed it! Well done! When I looked at it and mentioned the price was three times the market value, they wanted to immediately ring the owner to let me negotiate. I declined, as I didn't want to spend even a fair price for another OM body at this stage.

And yes, didn't I buy one of your OM lenses? The 35/2.8?

 

[__hh]

You grabbed it! Well done! When I looked at it and mentioned the price was three times the market value, they wanted to immediately ring the owner to let me negotiate. I declined, as I didn't want to spend even a fair price for another OM body at this stage.

And yes, didn't I buy one of your OM lenses? The 35/2.8?

It's such a small small world I've got my eye on more OM lenses now! It never stops.

 

[Igor.Burshteyn]

Have OM1n/OM4ti and primes from 16mm fisheye zuiko to 300mm f2.8 tamron. Addictive system. OM4ti with 50mm f2 or f1.4 lens used 90% of time, with 28mm/35mm/135mm and T32 flash in the bug and sued occasionally. Love handling of camera/lenses. Must agree that OM1 has smoother feeling to winding/shutter ring, still OM4ti feels very good.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I have the OM2 SP and use it almost always with the Zuiko 28-48 wide zoom lens. It's a great little camera.

 

[whitecat]

I have an OM 4T which I use with their 24mm PC lens. Rare and expensive it's the widest shift lens made for 35mm. If you like architecture, this is THE lens.

 

[__hh]

First shots with the OM4 and 50mm f/2 macro

First shots with the OM4 and 50mm f/2 macro

Well, I ran a couple of rolls through the OM4 and the lens package that I bought last Friday. My inital reations are... great fun to use, solid camera, spot metering is great. However, the mirror slap compared to the M bodies and the shallow DOF at f/2 makes focusing a bit tricky (esp in low light).

Attached are some happy snaps of the family. Tri-X in Ilfotec LC29

 

[blazeicehockey]

My wife gave me the OM2s for Christmas in 1984, I bought a black OM1 in '85 and both are loaded and ready to go today. Ten years is the longest I've kept any other camera - including Leica and Nikon.

I own the 28, 50 and 100mm lenses and all are tack sharp, small and light. The whole kit fits in a bag that would barely hold a current DSLR alone. No piece has ever failed and I haven't babied it any. No whirring motors, buzzers, flashing lights in the finder, etc, just solid useable features. If OLY comes out with a DSLR version of the OM1, size, weight and features the same, put me down for two.

erm...haven't they already?

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...=130&prev=/images?q=om4+e-410&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

 

[blazeicehockey]

Called my bluff, eh. Here's what I should have said:

If OLY comes out with a DSLR version of the OM1, size, weight and features the same, and Kodak stops making film, put me down for two.

hehe - I'm an digital Oly user myself. I've been watching the small Oly's for a few months now. The only reason for not getting one myself is the x2 factor and the limited dynamic range.

Now...give me a ff OLY with the DR of a fuji and I'll be hapy.

 

[maddoc]

Most sophisticated SLR out there

Bright, almost 100% viewfinder.

If you want one, the OM4 is cheaper and brasses nicely.

The next best OM is the OM1:

Cheers,

Roland.

The OM1 !!! Brings back some memories It was the camera, that we used in my former laboratory (because we had an Olympus microscope) and for my diploma-thesis I had to take some long-time exposures of a fluorescent screen (Low Energy Electron Diffraction). BW film, 100 ASA with exposure times of about 1 minute, a custom-build mono-rail to mount the camera in front of the viewing window of the UHV system and a Olympus macro lens

 

[Pascal]

multi spot meter, small , compact. really nice. Anybody have one? How are they in real life?

I have the OM-4 which is the version before the OM-4Ti. The major difference is the circuitry that was upgraded on the Ti which saves battery life. When the 4Ti was released, Olympus / 3rd party service offered upgraded circuitry for the OM-4 and you can always tell if the OM-4 you pick up off of eBay or a used equipment store has the upgrade or not by doing a battery check.

With the OM-4 series, you get the bright wonderful viewfinder, the solid construction that could easily rival the Nikon F3HP or Contax RTS SLR's or Contax G2. It truly is built well.
The spot meter is a breeze to use (once you get used to it) and the lenses are truly exquisite. Having used a few 35mm SLR's to date, once you use the OM-4/4Ti, you really begin to appreciate the amount of thought Olympus put into their camera's.

I have a few of the lenses and use them with the OM-4 mostly and sometimes with my Canon or Olympus 4/3rds system with an adapter. The OM lenses can sometimes rival or exceed what Zeiss has to offer (minus the Zeiss look). The wide angle eprimes are superior to and/or rival today's finest "made for digital" lenses.

The old OM-4 still gets used on a regular basis and it is a real joy to walk around with such a compact SLR. You really appreciate photography for what it is when you use it. If you find one for a decent price, don't hesitate to pick it up and start shooting.

The OM-3Ti is a work of art when it comes to mechanical camera's. I now wish I had picked up an OM-3Ti when I had the chance to buy it for under $500.

Here's most of my OM system...

OM-4 with 24mm f2.8 Lens
OM-10 with FC controller with 50mm f1.8 Lens and T32 Flash

From right to left - back to front
35-70mm f3.6, 75-150mm f4.0, 200mm f4.0, 500mm f8.0 Mirror, 85-250mm f5.0
55mm f1.2, 35-70mm f3.6, 35mm f2.8 PC Shift, another 35mm f2.8 PC Shift, 24mm f3.5 PC Shift, 90mm f2.0 Macro
50mm f1.4 Silvernose, 85mm f2.0, 50mm f3.5 Macro, 80mm f4.0 Macro, 135mm f4.5 Macro
16mm f3.5 Fisheye, 50mm f1.2, 50mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4 MC, 40mm f2.0
28mm f2.8, 35mm f2.8 Silvernose, 38mm f3.5 Macro, 21mm f3.5 Macro, Auto extension tube 65-116mm

 

[wintoid]

I bought an OM4 (not T or Ti) and was very disappointed with the finder brightness compared to my Pentax MX and ME-Super. From reading on the net, I understand that the OM2SP, OM4, OM4Ti have an extra mirror which reduces finder brightness. I now have an OM2N and am much happier. Lovely finder!

 

[monster]

i think OM system is more than camera gear.


its lovely , really small size , good quality both image and mechanical.

 

[ruben]

I bought an OM4 (not T or Ti) and was very disappointed with the finder brightness compared to my Pentax MX and ME-Super. From reading on the net, I understand that the OM2SP, OM4, OM4Ti have an extra mirror which reduces finder brightness. I now have an OM2N and am much happier. Lovely finder!

Hi Wintoid,
Well, I think I have an opportunity to make you happier.

The finder brightness of slrs.... Ok I will refer specifically to the OMs to avoid some curious folk with an original finding.... depends on the type of focusing screen.

Olympus has produced, I think but not sure, three families or generations of such screens, being the most bright the one called Lumi Micron. These are very similar to the Beatty and other super bright screens, but of higher quality finnish.

These Lumi Micron screens were standard glued to the fixed screen amateur OM line of cameras and to the OM4ti (OM4t) and OM3t (OM3ti).

Lumi Micron screens were sold as a separate screen, like any other Oly screen, but they were immediately disappeared from the market. The demmand was much bigger than the supply, and Olympus managers by those times were too busy twisting the hand of their genius Maitani, trying to avoid the evolution of the OM line into AF, I guess out of profit/convenience calculations.

I assume the screen you got is first generation.

Now there always has been an unfinnished debate about how much a brighter focusing screen will automatically improve your focusing, not just your composing.

I have said that the chances or finding a sole Lumi Micron screen are not close to zero but an absolute zero, yet it is too early to suicide. The second generation, I think it was known by the addition of the letter "n" (new, 13n for example) has not been whiped out of Earth and these screens are pretty bright compared to the first generation.

Now, as owner of OM4ti with a Lumi screen, and another Beatty interscreen, I would say the following. You purchase a Beatty, but I hope they have improved their finnish (central focusing part) since the one I bought it.

Secondly, in bright light the Lumi screen will betray your chances for quick focusing, as you will be looking for where the hell the focusing collar went.

And, as for finding an "n" series screen, you can look at the bay and ask sellers of part olys, or old olys, to look for the type of screen. The letter "n" was imprinted. Now dismounting the focusing screen, for a seller that has not the slightest idea, will be unpossible. But for a seller knowledgeable of Oly gear it will be a kids play he will do with his nail, literally.

All the above written is in general lines, and waits for my good friend Trius to correct and redress to fine detail. Although the OM has and is the backbone of my camera fleet, there has passed a long time since I used them, as I discovered this site, and started with the Kiev rangefinder adventure.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[wintoid]

Thanks Ruben. I sold the OM4 a long time ago (on RFF as it happens). I knew some of what you've described, and I did spend ages looking for a 2 series screen. I also considered buying an OM40 in order to hack the screen out. In the end, though, I didn't use the features of the OM4. Now I have the OM2N, I am beyond happy. It's really wonderful, and I don't even need to change the screen. As for the Olympus 50mm f/1.2 lens.... well.... I am speechless.

 

[Spyderman]

Ruben,

there are only 2 generations of focus screens. Marked 1-# and 2-#.

The 2-13 can still bebought on ebay. Some seller in UK or germany sells them as spare parts (i.e. without the box and brush).

I was lucky enough that I found one for about € 40 about a year ago.

The 2-13 screen is brighter, but focussing on the matte area is more difficult, as it is less apparent when the image is in focus and when it's out of focus.

BTW: another OM user here ! I've got 1n chrome and black, 2n black, 4Ti black and a plain 4 which I gave to my GF. OM system is dead, long live the OM system !

 

[photovdz]

zuikoholism is may be the most addictive of the photographic pathologies...

I bought my first OM1 (black) with basic 50/135/35 second hand (in fact parrallel import from japan) when I was 14... (sold my Märklin train... ), and still have it and use it today... along with more than 100 cameras... (including the full om 1, 2, 3, 4ti set, some ltm leicas, 10 or more contaxes, a G2, a M6ttl, 2 M3, a bessa R, the full set of Super Ikontas... some russian stuff too...)

But I still have a lot difficulties to resist buying OM stuff when there are some interesting parts around... (like a T45 for instance, or the T8 macroflash)...

As a user I like the OM3, and the OM4ti (brighter viewfinder, dioptrical correction) with the 50/1,8 (plain basic), the 100/2 (what a portrait lense), the 21/3,5 and the 24/2 ... and of course the 40/2...

and except the 3TI you can buy a full system for the price of a M8;;;

(by the way 500AU$ for the kit was cheap, since the 50/2 macro is a very rare lens... worth at least 400 if in perfect condition)

List of rare OM zuiko lenses :
- evrything below 20mm
- the 21/2
- the 24 shift
- the 40/2
- the 50/2 macro
- the 90/2 macro
- all the "white whales" (high apertures telephotos)...

Stephan

 

[Peter_Jones]

I just picked up a black OM2n for twenty quid



It'll keep the others company, I may use it for night shots - apparently this model's forte.



I am, though, still looking for bargain-priced OM3 or OM4 (any variant) and lenses I'll let you know how I get on.