Some comments on recent thread discussions on using OM's under cold or
harsh/mountaineering conditions.
I have used OM's for many years for mountaineering predominantly in warm
conditions. But also a number of High altitude Alpine type expeditions to
Patagonia,Andes, Mt Kenya etc. In 1979 I went on an expedition where Olympus
sponsored camera gear for us giving us a whole lot of gear in return for
wearing Olympus logo's on our climbing helmets etc. The factory winterised the
gear for us which evidently was mainly just using thinner oil/grease. I had an
official new OM1N (winterised) that I used plus an old OM2 (unwinterised).
Both bodies worked well and I did not even bother to put them in my sleeping
bag at night to keep the batteries warm. I had only one mirror lockup on the
OM2 first thing in the morning in an ice--cave; After warming the batteries
everything worked fine. Conditions were not too extreme and we were only
climbing to a little over 22000 ft, but we did sleep out a lot in the snow
without tents and I usually just hung my camera on my ice-axe. One other
expedition member sneaked in a battery hogging heavy C*n*n SLR completely
against our agreement with Olympus. It gave trouble in the cold and finally
failed at base camp near the end of the trip. One major irritation with any
camera ,is eyepiece fogging from your laboured breathing at altitude.
I would guess under much more extreme Patagonia type conditions the
mechanical OM1 would be preferable to the auto-models which is maybe why we
were given mainly OM1's when sponsored.
Last year, my wife and I climbed the main peak on Mt Kenya (17000ft)
(not the
low hikers peak) and were caught out in a snow storm just below the summit. My
Om2S worked fine under these coditions and in the steamy walk out through the
bamboo forest. Most commonly my OM2s is used while rock climbing where dust
in the lenses or dinged filter rings have been the main problem. The bodies
have been completely reliable.
While climbing El Capitan a few years back in Yosemite Valley I
borrowed a
point and shoot C*n*n to cut haul bag weight over my Olympus. What a mistake,
the quality was awful, I really regret it.
Despite being plastic most of the point and shoot type cameras seem
surprisingly easy to damage. My wife's point and shoot Olympus 3500 lost it's
mid after being dropped and has been impossible to fix permanently. My
diminutive Nikon shirt pocket camera died and has been impossible to resurect
after being exposed to very humid conditions after a rain storm in the
mountains.
Tim Hughes
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