>OK, let's put some historical perspective into this.
>
>Asahi (the maker of the Pentax cameras) produced the
>first Japanese SLR in 1954.
No - Asahiflex (WLF) - 1952 - http://www.concentric.net/~sherfy/special1.html
>
>Asahi went on to put the first pentaprism into an
>SLR in 1957 (the first Pentax).
No - Miranda Orion, 1956 -
http://cameraquest.com/orion.htm
>The Asahi Spotmatic was the world's first SLR with
>TTL metering (originally intended to be a spot meter,
>hence the name Spotmatic, but an averaging meter
>went into production) produced in 1964.
No - first TTL - Topcon RE Super -
http://www.kte.nl/~pjonkman/cameras.htm
They did not have spot metering? Que?! The previous Pentax H (US) or S
(elsewhere) had no metering (accessory clip-on meter). Only the last
Spotty, the F, did not spot meter.
>The Spotmatic had defined everything to go into a SLR
>with a TTL meter. By the time the M/OM-1 came out,
>all it did was to make the package smaller and lighter.
>The shutter speed control was moved, but nothing new
>or innovative was added by the OM-1 compared to the
>Spotmatic.
Yes, I remember the launch. It created a stir because of size and surprise,
nothing else. The camera was not seen as stronger or having better lenses,
for instance, than the equivalent Nikon or Canon. It was 'compact' and
triggered a fashion for compact SLR's - there was a rush of them afterwards.
>So in that sense, the Spotmatic deserves to be
>recognized while the OM-1 does not. Now, the OM-2,
>on the other hand, did bring us OTF metering, which
>was a new technology (though only licensed by Olympus).
> -Dan
The Spotmatic was not a huge design leap over previous Pentaxes but it
popularised TTL metering - a dramatic step. That's why it deserves it's
place.
The OM1 did nothing much new but did it very, very well. So did some
others. Pentax made the near indestructible K1000, for instance, still
being made in China and imported here (Aus) for the schools market - the VW
of cameras.
Now on the subject of the natural affinity of Oly and Spotty owners - I
went to the WEF demonstrations on Sept. 11 (with an EOS600 I'm afraid) and,
being a curious little gearhead, set out to survey what cameras anarchists
use. I saw one Contax (137?), an M6 too, but most of the real protesters
carried OM10's or Spotmatics. Ha!
Andrew
(Green anarcho-syndicalist!)
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