Olympus OM System ·
I've always been partial to the Olympus OM System cameras and lenses. I had quite a substantial collection of old OM SLR bodies and lenses,
before I sold them all and drifted to a Sony mirrorless in the 2010. But now, as of December 2021 I'm back in the Olympus fold, and am
very glad to have returned.
OM Camera ·
In 2010 I bought a Sony NEX7 as a digital replacement for my OM kit, as described below. I must admit to never quite viewing the NEX7 with
the same fondness I had for my OM cameras, but it was light and compact and did the job for over 10 years. But I was always hankering for an OM
camera. In 2010 the choice of an OM digital camera wasn't great, but now, well, they make some beautiful cameras. I'm sure someone
will tell me that there are better digital cameras out there, and I should have done some proper investigations, but late last year, in 2021
after very little of the aforesaid investigations I ditched my unloved NEX7 and bought:
And I'm very happy indeed! The camera's retro-gorgeousness make me happy just to use it.
The 7-14mm (14-28mm equivalent) super wide angle is beautiful and sharp so I can continue to capture landscapes as is my wont,
and the 75-300 mm (150-600mm equivalent) means I can photograph birds and animals much more easily now. So, after a hiatus of 11 years
I'm back in the OM fold.
OM Collection ·
My second 35mm SLR ever was an Olympus OM20 with a 50mm macro lens which I was given on my birthday in 1986.
(My first SLR was a second hand Praktica, in case you're wondering).
That was about it until the early 2000s when I went through a phase of collecting OM bodies, Zuiko lens, and OM accessories, mainly from eBay and sometimes specific second hand (or pre-owned as they liked to call it) camera dealers such as Ffordes in Inverness-shire.
Over the next decade I amassed quite a large collection of OM bodies, including three OM4-Ti's, numerous OM10s and another couple of OM20s (but never, unfortunately, an OM3-Ti as they were like hen's teeth and just a wee bit out of my price range), loads of Zuiko lens from 18mm all they way up to a 500mm reflex, including some rarities like the full frame fisheye 16mm f/3.5, the 40mm f/2.0 pancake, the 28mm f/2.0 (as opposed to the generic f/3.5), and I was just about to buy the 90mm f/2.0 macro when I decided to finally migrate to digital. I also bought OM original filters, lens hoods, camera bags, cases, grips, viewfinder lens etc. If it had the OM marque (and wasn't too outrageously expensive) I bought it. At that time all the analogue SLR systems were slowly being replaced in the consumer and professional world by digital, so most of this stuff was going cheap.
Then, in the early 2010s I decided to go digital (well, everybody else seemed to have already made the transition), so I sold all my OM kit, apart from my original OM20, at the aforementioned Ffordes, and used the (not inconsiderable) proceeds to go digital. After looking at the DSLRs available I eventually went for the Sony NEX7, primarily because the analogue OM SLR system had spoiled me and I wanted a compact camera, not a full-frame beast weighing in at over a kilo. At the time Olympus didn't really have a decent digital offering, but now, I'm waiting for my NEX7 to die and then I'll most likely revert back to an Olympus camera. Maybe the OM-D E-M5 Mark III.
That was about it until the early 2000s when I went through a phase of collecting OM bodies, Zuiko lens, and OM accessories, mainly from eBay and sometimes specific second hand (or pre-owned as they liked to call it) camera dealers such as Ffordes in Inverness-shire.
Over the next decade I amassed quite a large collection of OM bodies, including three OM4-Ti's, numerous OM10s and another couple of OM20s (but never, unfortunately, an OM3-Ti as they were like hen's teeth and just a wee bit out of my price range), loads of Zuiko lens from 18mm all they way up to a 500mm reflex, including some rarities like the full frame fisheye 16mm f/3.5, the 40mm f/2.0 pancake, the 28mm f/2.0 (as opposed to the generic f/3.5), and I was just about to buy the 90mm f/2.0 macro when I decided to finally migrate to digital. I also bought OM original filters, lens hoods, camera bags, cases, grips, viewfinder lens etc. If it had the OM marque (and wasn't too outrageously expensive) I bought it. At that time all the analogue SLR systems were slowly being replaced in the consumer and professional world by digital, so most of this stuff was going cheap.
Then, in the early 2010s I decided to go digital (well, everybody else seemed to have already made the transition), so I sold all my OM kit, apart from my original OM20, at the aforementioned Ffordes, and used the (not inconsiderable) proceeds to go digital. After looking at the DSLRs available I eventually went for the Sony NEX7, primarily because the analogue OM SLR system had spoiled me and I wanted a compact camera, not a full-frame beast weighing in at over a kilo. At the time Olympus didn't really have a decent digital offering, but now, I'm waiting for my NEX7 to die and then I'll most likely revert back to an Olympus camera. Maybe the OM-D E-M5 Mark III.
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Some OM references