Olympus Pen Article on Zone-10

[Ken N]

Please excuse the shameless plug, but we just posted a new article on www.zone-10.com on the development and history of the Olympus Pen cameras.

Here is the direct link:

http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=434&Itemid=1

Ken (cook/bottlewasher) Norton

 

[Mick Fagan]

Very interesting read, thanks.

Mick.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Mmmmmmmmm. An OM....

Yes, very, very interesting.
Oh, and I love the sexy front-on view of the OM 3. Would be even more breathtaking if it were the OM4 <sigh> That is a camera to ring on the bell, tap on the window pane. What are the chances, Mick, of us being youngsters again and reliving the glory days of photography with the OM4 and its stablemate, the Ti??

 

[removed account4]

great article ken!
i love my pen ft ( used it today even!

 

[Mick Fagan]

Ummmm, I did live the glory days with an original OM Spiegel Reflex (Mirror Reflex) that was purchased in Germany before they were available in Australia.

Then I had the next model which had a small letter or two after the main name added, denoting that it could take a winder (or drive?).

Yes great cameras but they didn't travel too well in extreme heat on motorcycle in the tank bag. The camera body had a different heat co-efficient factor compared to the base plate with the gears inside.

The base plate used to get hotter than the body, as a result, it buckled a bit and made the clearance between the gears and other parts non-existent, jamming the camera.

The second model with the winder ability was supposed to have that problem fixed, it wasn't, so I left the Olympus system.

Mick.

 

[Ken N]

Yes, very, very interesting.
Oh, and I love the sexy front-on view of the OM 3. Would be even more breathtaking if it were the OM4 <sigh> That is a camera to ring on the bell, tap on the window pane. What are the chances, Mick, of us being youngsters again and reliving the glory days of photography with the OM4 and its stablemate, the Ti??

Thanks. That photograph was rather fun to do (I shot it with an E-1 for the article), but honestly, the OM-3Ti is far more fun to use. I have an OM-4T, which is in decently-brassed condition that is more practical for some types of photography, but for shear tactile pleasure, the 3Ti is in a league of its own. It actually sounds different as I believe the damping is tuned differently.

For me, the "glory days" of the OM system are somewhat here and now. For years, while I shot with an OM-1, OM-2 and OM-2S, I envied those with autofocus and power everything. The F5 really made me envious. But for the past five years I've been using digital cameras far better than the AF performance and feature set of any film camera I drooled over. The grass was greener on the other side (Canon or Nikon). But for the past two years I've been returning to film shooting in the OM system. After 23 years, I've FINALLY figured out how to shoot an OM camera. It is less SLR and more Leica in gestalt. Once I stopped trying to shove the OM camera through square holes, I truly learned how to use them to achieve better photographs than I really was able to muster for two decades.

At the end of the OM-3Ti review, I think I summarized my thoughts about that camera. Had I known just what that camera was like, I would have skimped and saved to get one years ago.

As I look forward to this year's week long "great adventures", I'm going to do something I haven't done in five years -- shoot exclusively film.