>In a message dated 12/17/2000 11:49:48 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>ray_moth@xxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>
>I'm curious to know how and when List members got into the OM system.
>OM has never been the most popular brand, so I would imagine most
>OM-ers either chose the system because of some particular feature they
>wanted or inherited it.
When I got my first "serious" camera in 1979, Olympus was very
popular. Several of my friends were getting into photography at the
same time, and we all ended up with Olympus or Nikon setups.
At the time, Olympus was the official camera of the UPI, and possibly
the AP, and was popular with mountaineers, so it seemed like a
natural choice for me. I was heavy into rock climbing, caving, and
backpacking at the time, so I wanted a camera that was light, tough,
and had a good reputation for quality. Olympus gave me all three. It
was also cheaper than Nikon, which didn't hurt a bit.
My parents gave me an OM-10 that year, and the next year I bought
myself an OM-1n, preferring the all-manual operation and control.
Until 1998 (I think), that OM-1n with a 50/1.8 was my entire setup,
and my parents used the OM-10 as a backup to their series of
ever-more automatic consumer cameras. Then a few years ago, I decided
I'd been a purist long enough, and bought an 80-200 zoom (gasp!) and
a flash (say it ain't so!) for my spartan but beloved OM-1n.
The rest, as they say, is history. Within a year and a half of
abandoning my "50mm available light only" principles, I'd reclaimed
my OM-10, added a pair of OM-4Tis, built up a collection of Zuikos
ranging from 16mm to 300mm, and filled up a couple of camera bags
with flashes, filters, adaptors, and assorted junk.
I'm glad I had 19 years of experience on the basics. Learning to work
with available light, and live with the limitations of 50mm taught me
an awful lot about composition and exposure that I might not have
learned if I'd had the benefit of a fully equipped system from the
very beginning. At the very least, it's certainly left me more
capable of dealing with difficult situations, equipment failure, and
other unexpected challenges.
BBB
-
B.B. Bean bbbean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Bean & Bean Cotton Co/Bean Farms http://www.beancotton.com
Peach Orchard, MO
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