Frank,
As you are apparently not a good match for this camera, let me know what
you want for it when you decide to sell. Hate to see a man in pain. : >)
Steve Roman, Champlin, MN
decke003@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Ernens <fgernens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, January 08, 1999 7:55 PM
Subject: [OM] Be careful what you wish for...
>"Be careful what you wish for; it might come true."
>
>I have been looking for another OM body for some months now.
>Yesterday I snared an OM-4 in good condition, with a new
>OM4-Ti circuit installed, for a very good price. Lucky me!
>
>Or not so lucky. After just a few hours with this body I
>have come to loathe it. The problem is the ergonomics
>(or "handling", as photo types call it.) Although it seems
>OK when you first pick it up, a collection of small things
>add up to a camera which is very unpleasant to use.
>
>Here they are:
>
>1. You can't see the shutter speed looking down at the
>camera, because the prism housing obscures it. Since the
>aperture is not shown in the viewfinder, you can never see
>shutter speed and aperture together. This is especially
>bad when the camera is mounted on a tripod for macro work.
>
>2. In manual mode, an LCD number line is shown in the
>viewfinder, but it is *backwards* from mathematical convention.
>+ is to the left, and - to the right! Since I am in the
>minority of people who hold a camera vertically with the
>shutter release at the bottom, it's OK in vertical format.
>On the OM-1 and OM-2N, this scale is at the left of the
>viewfinder with + to the top, and therefore correct for
>me in either format.
>
>3. The exposure compensation dial is likewise backwards
>from expected, with + proceeding anticlockwise. Even worse,
>the *scale* rotates around the *dial*. When setting the
>film speed, you have to perform a mental triple-negative.
>
>4. An LCD bar graph is much harder to use than an
>analogue swing needle. There have been scientific studies
>done in the avionics industry to prove this. If the
>reading is between two values on the LCD scale, the last
>block blinks in a very distracting way. The LCD is just
>a cost-saving by the manufacturer - on what was supposed
>to be the top of the range model.
>
>4. There is no spot metering manual mode. You have to
>start in centre-weighted manual mode and push the "spot"
>button. Then you centre the bar graph (drawn, per (2),
>backwards, from right to left). Meanwhile, a second
>moving diamond - the next spot reading, which the
>camera is not using - is blinking away, distracting you.
>There has to be a SPOT button in order for multi-spot
>to work, but I'm only interested in a single spot reading.
>In this respect the OM2000 and OM-2SP are both much
>better cameras.
>
>5. The camera gets sick of you after 120 seconds and
>unilaterally throws away all your work. If you are using
>the spot meter manually, it also changes the mode back
>to centre-weighted, with very little in the viewfinder
>to warn you. There should be a three-way switch
>OFF-CENTRE-SPOT and another one MANUAL-AUTO. The second
>would be left in one position by many people.
>
>6. You have to read the instruction book from cover to
>cover to figure out how to stop the camera from beeping.
>Beeps are *always* evidence of poor interface design. When
>you do switch it off, you find out why it was there: the
>viewfinder doesn't indicate how many spot measurements have
>the one value.
>
>7. The highlight and shadow buttons are pointless features,
>since there's already a compensation dial. I don't happen
>to agree with 2 2/3 stops for shadow with the film I use,
>but that's a moot point, since I can't actually push the
>button with my fat finger. I have already suggested in (4)
>that the SPOT button is a bad idea too.
>
>8. The TTL socket is exactly where I like to rest a finger.
>When a cord is attached to it, it tends to drift into the
>field of view for macro work.
>
>9. The MEMO mode looks deadly. If you should accidentally
>bump this switch, *every* exposure from then on will be wrong.
>I am so afraid of doing this I have taken to pressing CLEAR
>(which cancels MEMO) every time I pick up the camera and
>between every frame. More mental overhead.
>
>10. The instruction manual actually says to remove the
>batteries between sessions. They have to be joking.
>
>11. I spent quite a while centreing the dioptric adjustment,
>even though I wear contacts and don't need it. This knob
>doesn't lock securely enough to prevent it being moved
>in use. Even after this, the viewfinder is not as clear
>as that of the OM-1 and OM-2N, although mercifully smaller.
>
>There may be more problems. (1) and (2) are the killers,
>and (4) is right up there. Fortunately the shop that sold
>this camera has a return policy.
>
>I know now that it wasn't lack of marketing or keen pricing
>which lost Olympus the SLR market. They no longer *have* a
>product worth marketing. I would not buy this camera new at
>any price.
>
>
>
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