My Olympus Love Affair
I saved up (well actually sold a bunch of stuff of eBay) to get a camera I've wanted for many years - an Olympus OM-4. I once bought an Olympus OM-2 at a yard sale in the 1990's not really knowing what it was. It didn't work, so I talked the guy down from $50 to $20. I stopped at a drug store and bought some watch batteries for it and it fired right up. After getting home and doing some research, I found out how coveted and unique the OM series cameras were. I also found out that the body i just bought was selling used for $250 and up. I had just bought a professional camera for nothing. The lens, an off-market zoom, was so-so, but I used it for a couple of years, thoroughly enjoying the small size and accurate meter of the OM-2.
I then bought an Olympus Zuiko 50mm standard lens. I remember what I said when I just looked through the viewfinder - "Wow!" I couldn't believe the contrast. I shot with Pentax mainly, and although I had a few quality Pentax Takumar lenses at that point, I really hadn't experienced real quality in a lens. The difference between this new lens and the old zoom I had on there was like having Vaseline smeared on the front. The old zoom was milky looking and had a lot of flare. I didn't really truly understand until then that the quality of the lens makes the major difference. It only makes sense, because in my daily job as an audio engineer, the microphone is the front line of quality. Needless to say, I never used that old zoom again. So began the real love affair with Olympus cameras and lenses. I've always strived for Nikon gear (which I dearly love and respect for the quality). However, Olympus was always the little company that could. They built a complete pro system around this camera, once touted as the smallest 35mm SLR camera. There was really nothing this system couldn't do in its heyday. The metering system was unsurpassed for years, even decades. The small size revolutionized the 35mm SLR market. The integrated flash system was a first of its kind. It set the pace, but didn't have the massive global recognition of Nikon, Canon, or Pentax. The camera that became the pinnacle of the line was the OM-4. They made this camera for nearly 20 years in one iteration or another. Olympus finally abandoned it, as well as quality pro cameras, amidst the autofocus and digital era. But the electronic sophistication makes this a truly user-collectable. The amazing spot metering isn't even found in any of today's cameras. It allows you to spot meter several parts of a scene, and then average them into a suitable exposure. Even more, you can choose what part of your scene has the most significance when calculating this average. On the Rusty Jockey shot below, I metered the face twice, the blue silk once, and the green background once. Perfect exposure right out of the box. My entire roll of 36 exposures had correct exposure on every shot. My composition sucked on a lot of them, but the exposure was exactly what I expected. There was even an accidental shot when i was fumbling with the camera that was perfectly exposed. I've found that metering goes really fast once you get the hang of it. A real masterpiece of the 35mm world. Thank you, Mr. Matiani.
I then bought an Olympus Zuiko 50mm standard lens. I remember what I said when I just looked through the viewfinder - "Wow!" I couldn't believe the contrast. I shot with Pentax mainly, and although I had a few quality Pentax Takumar lenses at that point, I really hadn't experienced real quality in a lens. The difference between this new lens and the old zoom I had on there was like having Vaseline smeared on the front. The old zoom was milky looking and had a lot of flare. I didn't really truly understand until then that the quality of the lens makes the major difference. It only makes sense, because in my daily job as an audio engineer, the microphone is the front line of quality. Needless to say, I never used that old zoom again. So began the real love affair with Olympus cameras and lenses. I've always strived for Nikon gear (which I dearly love and respect for the quality). However, Olympus was always the little company that could. They built a complete pro system around this camera, once touted as the smallest 35mm SLR camera. There was really nothing this system couldn't do in its heyday. The metering system was unsurpassed for years, even decades. The small size revolutionized the 35mm SLR market. The integrated flash system was a first of its kind. It set the pace, but didn't have the massive global recognition of Nikon, Canon, or Pentax. The camera that became the pinnacle of the line was the OM-4. They made this camera for nearly 20 years in one iteration or another. Olympus finally abandoned it, as well as quality pro cameras, amidst the autofocus and digital era. But the electronic sophistication makes this a truly user-collectable. The amazing spot metering isn't even found in any of today's cameras. It allows you to spot meter several parts of a scene, and then average them into a suitable exposure. Even more, you can choose what part of your scene has the most significance when calculating this average. On the Rusty Jockey shot below, I metered the face twice, the blue silk once, and the green background once. Perfect exposure right out of the box. My entire roll of 36 exposures had correct exposure on every shot. My composition sucked on a lot of them, but the exposure was exactly what I expected. There was even an accidental shot when i was fumbling with the camera that was perfectly exposed. I've found that metering goes really fast once you get the hang of it. A real masterpiece of the 35mm world. Thank you, Mr. Matiani.
