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[OM] Re: A brief return to film

Subject: [OM] Re: A brief return to film
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:18:20 -0700
David Reed wrote:

>George,
>
>Can you tell me more about the OM-PC relative to the OMxn series?
>I what way do they compare/contrast?
>
I'm another fan of the OM-PC. Suddenly with that body, TTL OTF flash and 
full mirror/aperture prefire appear in the double digit bodies. Then 
they added a precursor to all the fancy automatic exposure systems to 
come. ESP, as they called it, compares the brightness of the outer areas 
of the frame to the center. If they are about the same, it uses the 
overall weighted average. When they differ, it corrects in favor of the 
center. You can watch through the viewfinder as it works; an indicator 
shows when it is changing the exposure. Looking through the viewfinder 
and watching as you point the lens around and about is quite impressive. 
The results are too, in many classic difficult lighting situations. Most 
impressive with front and back lighting and scenes with bright sky or 
other excessive light anywhere around the outer area.

One of the downsides of the PC/40 is the same as for the OM-4, a complex 
electronic circuit with new circuits unavailable and replacement 
uneconomic. There is also a weak link in the rewind mechanism than can 
fail. Also, the exposure system speed indicator is full stop only and is 
said by some to be inaccurate below maybe 1/4 second. That's only the 
indicator reading for manual, of course, TTL auto is accurate. On the 
other hand, it's LED, rahter than LCD, so you can see the reading in the 
dark.

Really a wonderful walk around camera when you don't want to be serious 
about "photography", just take some nice shots without worrying about 
fancy metering. Perfect match to the 35-70/3.5-4.5 that it was paired 
with in kits. I wish I had ESP metering as another option on the OM-4 
series bodies.

Oh, it also has a Program mode like the OM-2SP, which could make it a 
good F&S (focus and shoot) camera, but I've never been able to abdicate 
choice of aperture.

It's also cheap, making it the perfect OM-4(T(i)) stand-in in risky 
situations.

Moose


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