So tell us, how do you really feel about it!!!
----Original Message Follows----
From: clintonr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [OM] In Defence of OM1 (was "25 Best Cameras"/"Spotmatics &
Olys"/et al)
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 14:18:58 -0500
The 25 _BEST_ cameras? "Best" means what it means - not "best for it's
day", or "a milestone, surpassed by time". If you're talking about the
BEST, you've _got_ to include the OM-1. It does what it does better
than virtually every like-camera ever made. For a mechanical/manual
camera, it's unsurpassed.
But imagine....(no, I'm _not_ staying away from car analogies! ;^)
Imagine if there was a particular car - the first car with fuel
injection, the first car with disc brakes, the first car with electric
windows, the first car with an automatic transmission, the first car
with intermittant wipers, etc. - all on a mass-produced model priced for
the masses, all in the same car for the very first time. All in a car
that still ran the highways of the world, 30-some years after it was
first made.
You might say,
"Sure other cars run on gas - what does it matter how it gets to the
cylinders?
Sure other cars have brakes - what does it matter how you stop?
Sure other cars have windows - what does it matter how you run them up
and down?
Sure other cars have gears - what does it matter how you shift them?"
And so on....
Would you say, "(it) did nothing new but it did it very, very well"?
NO! You would regard it as a marvel, an advancement of unprecedented
genious!
Well, _that's_ the OM-1.
It's a camera - it takes film just like all the others.
You press the button, it takes a picture, just like all the others.
But what makes it different is mostly on the >>>inside<<<!
Technically, Pentaxes use conventional double-roller shutters - so do
most Leicas, OM's and many others. But the Pentax uses (if I remember
the terminology correctly) a brass "spill" gear, held to a wind gear by
a little brass key. When you release the shutter, you're pressing this
little brass key down so that a hole in the spill gear slips past the
key to let the curtains fly. It's a clumsy system that wears out under
frequent use. (Yes, yes, I know, you used one for years, and never had
any trouble, etc., etc., etc. But have you ever wondered why every
camera repair person knows how to _fix_ a Pentax? And how few repair
persons know, really _know_, how to fix an Olympus? Thinkaboutit.)
The OM's use a steel lever to latch a steel gear - a system that
virtually _never_ wears out.
Most every other SLR uses a penta-prism over a condensor lens over the
focusing screen. Yeah, it works - but it's a great place to collect
dirt in the viewfinder. In the OM's, the penta-prism and the condensor
are one piece of glass - presto, no gap for debris to collect! And even
if you do get junk between the screen and the prism, you just drop the
screen and gently blow it out!
The self-timer? Unlike some models, on the OM-1 you can set it but you
don't _have_ to use it right away.
Why is the OM-1 so (relatively) quiet? There's rubber bumpers, and
cushions, and even an air piston to quiet things down! Nothing everyone
else couldn't have done - so why didn't they?
The signs of genious are all throughout the OM-1. Unquestionably a
"best", to anyone who looks past the "fenders"!
Not to knock Pentaxes, but I suspect they included the Spotmatic (on the
list) because they felt they _had_ to include _something_ from Asahi!
And screw-mount lenses! There's nothing "best" about that, unless
low-cost comes into the equation. And note that even the bayonet K1000
(a good camera, don't get me wrong) has been relegated to "student"
status. While OM-1's are still coveted professionally world-wide.
Just my opinion, after all....
C
Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
> >Andrew Fildes wrote:
> >>
> >>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.
> >
> >Andrew,
> >
> >That was a great and well documented response on the OM/Spotmatic
> >discussion. I would mildly disagree only that the OM 1 did nothing
> >much new. The SLR was pretty much redesigned from top to bottom, not
> >only reducing it in size but creating a professional level camera
> >system that did not require native bearers to transport. Maitani's
> >pledge for the lenses to equal or better the performance of any other
> >maker's seemed to be kept in the reviews I read at the time. Staying
> >away from car analogies, it would be sort of like saying that the
> >Sony Walkman did nothing much new because it was not the first to use
> >tape cassettes.
> >
> >I really enjoyed the sites in your response. Thanks.
> >
> >Winsor
> >--
>
> Oh gawd, yes - let's stay away from car analogies (close one that :-).
> Thanks and you make a fair point - perhaps I was overstating for dramatic
> effect. Maitaini's design was innovative but it was still a conventional
> SLR - just smaller. The Walkperson changed the way we carried personal
> music but did the OM change the way we did photography?
> Andrew
>
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