The stories of how many of you got into OM are eerily similar to mine,
especially John's (Pandionhalietius). I was an 8th grader who, like John,
was chasing critters (photographing mainly bird's nests, to be more
accurate) climbing trees with a Leica IIIc, given to me by my dentist, of
all things. I experienced only moderate success as a nature photographer
with the Leica and the 5cm 3.5 Elmar lens. But I learned a lot about
photography and film developing in the process. I read so many books on
photography that I started complaining to my parents I could learn
nothing from reading additional books. The editor of our 8th grade
yearbook, Kim, a girl I liked a bit too much, proudly and arrogantly shot
with a Minolta SRT-101 (the only grade school kid with a real camera),
and I thought it was all but inevitable that when I got my first modern
camera, it would also be a Minolta, perhaps the 201, just to cheese Kim.
It was, at least, smaller than the oversized Nikons of the day. Then,
(again like John,) I became aware of the new Olympus system around 1975,
and the marketing literature captured me--that, and the jewel-like, very
"un-Minolta" look and feel of the camera. My first major purchase in my
life was an Olympus OM1-MD, purchased through a missionary friend who
(again, like John!) was in Hong Kong. This started a rift with Kim that
never fully healed. I ordered the OM1 with the 50mm f/1.4, an extravagant
expenditure, but I was fed up with slow normal lenses (recall the Elmar)
and, even more extravagantly, the amazing 75-150 zoom! My parents, not
wanting the investment to go to waste, funded me at a 2-day Nikon school,
which was in retrospect little more than an extended marketing assault by
the Nikon salespeople. (I was too young at the time to realize Nikon
school was more for selling Nikon gear than for teaching the basics of
photography, and my faith in the OM was badly shaken for awhile--mainly
because the OM didn't do double exposures as easily as did the Nikons.
Like I ever needed to make double exposures.) For two years the OM kit
(with a Vivitar 280-something strobe) put me as "the" photographer of my
high school (working for, as luck would have it, Kim, who was the high
school yearbook editor for years running). I added a 24mm f/2.8 in my
Junior year of high school, in time for a European vacation (with which
to photograph cathedrals). Years later, after college, I would sell all
my OM gear in a day, for a song, having seen "the future" in an early
Pentax (I think) autofocus camera, which I was actually smart enough not
to buy. So my mid-life interest in Olympus is really atonement for the
outrage of foolishness I committed in selling my original gear. At least
I've repurchased the 50 and the 24, and replaced the chrome OM1 with a
minty black OM1N, which was "to die for" in 1977. Kim always held the
purchase of an OM against me, but her sister followed suit and also
purchased an OM, having fallen in love with mine.
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|