I picked up one of these puppys off of eBay, just arrived today. This is the
bulky AF lens that mounts (and AFs) on "normal" OMs (as opposed to the AF
lenses for the OM-77/707/88/101).
I know, most of you are probably asking yourselves, "Why would he want one of
those?" And that's a very good question. I saw the auction on eBay, high bid
was only $46 with less than a day to go. I was mostly just curious, so I
placed a bid for $50, figuring it would go for more than that. Well, it went
for $47, so now I'm the proud(?) owner. For less than the price of a Baettie
screen, I figured, "What the heck!"
My first thought, as I opened the box in the post office parking lot and
mounted it on the OM-1 I keep in my car, was, "Hey! A match-needle metering,
mechanical shutter AF camera!" My next thought was, "hmmm heavy". It's rather
bulky, too, but fairly comfortable, in my hands, at least.
AF is slow by today standards, as I expected, and it's not smooth - very
jerky - kind of like it's thinking, "is it focussed? NO! ok, let's move this
way a little... Better? YES! OK, a little more... WOOPS! Too much! back a
little bit.. THERE! THAT'S IT!" Kinda reminded me of my honeymoon, but I
better not go there...
I think this thing might be some fun. Oddly enough, I think it might be most
useful on an OM-1 (or any OM on manual, I suppose). It will let me pay more
attention to fiddling with exposure. It seems fairly accurate, at least
outdoors in bright light. It'll probably get some use taking snaps of the
kids in the yard or at the park or zoo. In dim indoor lighting I think it
hunts too much.
I already have the 35-70/4 without the AF, so I'm expecting similar optical
performance.
I think I have the controls pretty well figured out, except there is a small
jack on one side (2.5mm maybe? I haven't checked it). Does anyone know what
this is for? Anyone have the instruction sheet/manual?
Paul for-the-first-time-thinks-he-might-have-one-too-many-Zuikos Schings
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