Olympus OM-4
Here we are deep in lockdown! I had written this once and sent it with pictures to Russell weeks ago but in the melee that followed the temporary closure and moving of stuff it got lost. Doing it again is something to do I guess and viewing the images are a nice reminder of how it worked out.
The obvious progressing from the OM-1 and 2 would be the 3, once Russell had stopped laughing he handed me an OM-4, it looks like most 35mm SLR’s of the time with all the usual bits in the usual places, just a lot of extra buttons. These I learned were mostly related to the meter system, or should I say systems, there are options a plenty. Everything else is much like you would expect, I wasn’t surprised to find the shutter ring still attached around the lens socket again! For a change of perspective I slotted a nice Zuiko f2.8 100mm lens into said orifice, better for the sort of scenes I look to take, that little bit of bringing things closer is preferred for me.
I set about reading up the meter system, wow! War and peace, and I wasn’t any the wiser after reading it. There is your standard averaging meter that works in the auto/aperture priority or combinations of shutter and aperture selection etc. I got all that, once I moved on to the fancy pants spot meter I just couldn’t get my head around it at first. The dimly lit liquid crystal screen at the bottom of the viewer just confused the hell out of me. I called on the help of an OM-4 user in the form of Erik Gould, first he directed me to the light for the screen, and so once I had gotten over feeling like an idiot he walked me through the way it read and displayed. I use a spot meter in my every day workflow so it was just a matter of understanding the different layout, were to put shadows etc. It really was one of those light bulb - now I get it type moment s and not that difficult once I had it. It goes further too, you can select 8 meter points and get an average for those but given my time scale I left that for another time.
How did it go? Extremely well I think. I only had a dozen frames of HP5+ from the bulk loader; the weather was good and a few things popped up worthy of pointing the lens at. The camera it’s self worked really well as I would expect coming straight from service. The metering I would tweak a little if I had to go again but that is just user and camera familiarity practice, they were just a tad over exposed but very close.
As someone who ordinarily uses unpowered cameras I really liked this battery reliant Olympus, probably my favourite of the three. It may be pricier than the others but well worth it for extras. Anyone from beginner to experienced zone system user to colour slide film addict would find just about all they would need from a 35mm SLR. Now! Is there a 5?
Click here to view or purchase this camera or the 100mm lens
By Ashley
