-----Original Message-----
From: Anthea Craig
Date: Sunday, July 25, 1999 9:44 AM
Subject: [OM] OM-30 autofocus lens
The OM 35-70mm auto focus lens is old technology. This lens can do something
your newer auto focus cameras can't. They can auto focus or power focus on a
manual camera.(i.e.any OM body) The lens has a built-in CCD cell that detects
if the subject is in focus and the camera(OM-F , OM-30) will not fire until the
CCD cell assures the subject is in focus. Not many know this , but this was
the first true one touch auto-focus SLR. If your using the OM-30 or OM-F
camera body (both bodies are same , OM-30 was oversea's version) with a motor
drive or winder , with an in focus trigger cord the auto-focus lens will
actually wait until the subject is in focus before the camera will fire.
The newer auto-focus allows some lee-way. They will fire if subject is in
focus or not. I beleive the term was called fuzzy-logic focus (for the newer
auto focus) vs the zero on focus for the Olympus. Photographers would complain
that they were missing there action shot because of the delay of the zero on
focus. It didn't matter that perhaps that picture may have been out of focus ,
they wanted the camera to fire regardless to give them a sense of control.
Newer Auto-focus is also not full proof. Sometimes the auto-focus lenses will
get confused and back focus or focus on the wrong area. So , I guess nothing
is 100 0.000000ull proof. Moreover , Olympus no longer carries some parts to
the lens and or the camera body. So , in my opinion the lens and the bodies
are more of a sleeper collectible. (not many peolple know that much about
them.) If you happen to drop the camera with that heavy lens , the camera and
the lens are very likely to become toast or paper weight. If your looking for
a camera you want to use in a proffesion , go for the newer auto-focus and use
your Olympus collectible , from time to time , with care of course , to shoot
stuff for leisure.
Take Care , Sam ... dolphans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have an OM-30 OMF on the other side of the pond) and I am trying to get hold
of the 35~70mm AF F4 lens for it. I have read the discussions in your
archives, but there wasn't any owners opinion. Does anyone have any experience
of using this
lens & camera combination? I am unsure what to expect compared to a modern
autofocus SLR in terms of speed & accuracy and the trade off in terms of cost
between buying this lens or trading up to a new camera. I would be grateful
for any
feedback!
Cheers,
Anth.
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