I bought my first OM-1 in 1975, it's still in use today... Took more than
100,000 pictures with it, dropped it a few times on a hard floor, on my
foot, once in a pond (the only time it really needed repairing, cost me
more than the price of a new one)... Lend it to some friends, got it back
covered with beer, ice-cream and some other, unidentifiable substances...
Don't want to think much about the exact nature of these...
At the time, I wanted a camera for multipurpose use (photomicrography,
macro, extreme macro, astrophotography, tele, "regular" photography etc...)
meaning: mirror lock-up, replacable screen, smooth shutter, both low and
high film speeds...
I also wanted a camera, capable of producing good negatives (for very large
prints), meaning all the above + good lenses.
Last but not least, I wanted a reliable, not to big, not to heavy, easy to
use camera at a decent price... A real workhorse, ready for torturing every
day, over and over again...
BTW: those were the days: no question of "drop in film loading", "built-in
motor drive", "ISO-scales" etc...
The only camera to match all my demands at an affordable price was the
OM-1. I was very pleased with it, as I am today...
IMHO: this is one of the best cameras ever made!
I've used a lot of cheap (Praktica, Zenit...) and very expensive cameras in
various film formats (Nikon, Leica, Hasselblad, Contax...) performing less
then my good old OM-1...
Especially in photomicrography (my main area of interest) I've seen lots of
expensive German and Japanese cameras, especially designed for this (Zeiss,
including the much praised Zeiss 35MC, Leitz, Reichert, Nikon...), doing
worse!
Yvan Lindekens.
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