Hi,
Guys, this topic was treated in a lot of detail some 1.5 years ago; I think
you may find it interesting to search the archives for it, to see what
people said at that time.
Either way, I'll shortly tell my story:
I got my first feel of the OM-system in the early eighties when handling my
father's OM-1 (+ 50/1.8, 28/3.5, and 135/2.8), which he bought when we were
living in the USA back in 1975.
Out of compatibility point of view, I decided to buy an Olympus camera too,
so I could use my father's wide angle and telephoto lenses. So, in 1986 as
my 14th birthday was coming up, I saved all my money and asked people to
contribute money for buying a camera. My birthday came, and lo and behold,
using the obtained money my parents bought me a brand new OM-40 + 50/1.8,
and my grandparents bought me the matching (n)ever ready case!
The camera was (is!) very nice, but I did find it uses a lot of batteries.
Removing them when not in use, however, drastically prolongs the lifetime of
the batteries. Still, I had not gotten very much into photogrpahy in the
early years, and this did not change until I went to Spain for my
internship, in 1996. During the 7 months I lived in Madrid I started to
really get into photography. My interest in it kept groing as I started
travelling a bit more, and went to Venezuela and Japan in early 1998.
From there matters evolved quickly: I graduated from university and started
working, so I finally had some more money to buy more camera gear. At a
local retailer I bought a second hand 35-70/4, and I also started looking
on the Internet for some lenses and a different body, and when asking a
question about the differences between the OM-4 and the OM-4Ti to an e-Bay
seller, I was kindly introduced by him to the list. I believe the seller was
Gary Reese, but I'm not 100 ertain anymore. Also, at the same time I had
placed a bid on an OM-4Ti manual to fins out its specs, but then Jan
Steinman mentioned to me that they could be obtained for free from Oly. This
was the second time I heard about the list, and around that time I joined
it. Pretty much at the same time, I bought a second hand 65-200/4 and 24/2.8
from an e-Bay seller, and the ball was rolling.
Well, a lot of people will know what happened after joining the list: yes,
just like many others of you, my urge for gear started to grow
exponentially, so now I have a whole lot more. Some of the highlights are
the OM-4Ti, the 100/2, a 35/3.8 Shift, the bellows gear, and last but
certainly not least, the 35-80/2.8!
The buying urge for me seems to have come pretty much at a stand-still, at
least for the time being. Partially this is because of a drastic lack of
funds, and partially because I really do have about enough gear now
(although a fast ultra wide and a fast medium long telephoto lens would be
nice).
So, focusing some more on hosting the TOPE events, I am now regressing a bit
to actually using all the gear I have (especially my favourite items, being
the OM-4Ti, 100/2, 35-80/2.8, 28/2), and it has been a long time since I
even bothered checking e-Bay for gear.
For the future I want to get some more into people photography (both on
location as well as in my own little home studio) and macro photography, as
I currently can't afford to travel very much; which is were my heart really
lies when it comes down to photography. So, enough areas to concentrate on
for the next few years...
Cheers!
Olafo
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