OM system advice

[vlasta]

Yesterday I was on local photo fair. Every OM-1 I looked through had problem with silver separation, mostly on the bottom of viewfinder.

 

[M-88]

Yesterday I was on local photo fair. Every OM-1 I looked through had problem with silver separation, mostly on the bottom of viewfinder.

Yes, most of the old models have such issues. Of all 8 simple OM-1 and 2 bodies I examined, only 3 had intact prisms. It's also worth mentioning that I have never seen silver separation in OM-1n and OM-2n. All in all "n" versions are somewhat improved.

Edit: due to peculiarities of how image is shown through the prism, bottom of the viewfinder represents a top of the prism, exactly where its holding tab and foam is placed. Foam deteriorates over time and causes separation of silver.

 

[ciniframe]

Kinda late to this party but, if the OP already has Nikon lenses then for a lighter body why not a FE? They seem fairly plentiful and not too expensive. Don’t know about reliability but I’m sure Nikon users could fill in that detail.

 

[M-88]

Kinda late to this party but, if the OP already has Nikon lenses then for a lighter body why not a FE? They seem fairly plentiful and not too expensive. Don’t know about reliability but I’m sure Nikon users could fill in that detail.

FE is a good camera indeed. Tactile joy, might I add. I am yet to see a camera with better feel to film advance than FE. The only drawback of I can point out is: it is very tricky to use AE lock in portrait orientation. Feels like I am twisting my fingers. It has a metal shutter, better flash sync and is as light as any single digit OM body, although bulkier. Same goes for the lenses. A true advantage of OM system lays in its lenses and their compact size.

As for reliability, you can break walnuts with FE and still keep photographing after. Of course they break too, just like any other camera, but their faults are mainly electrical and we can't avoid such things in cameras older than 30 years, can we?

 

[xtolsniffer]

I did consider an FE, though I do like TTL metering which would mean an FE2, which pushes the price up considerably...