Howdy gang, Reuben here.
First of all, merry whatever you celebrate at this time of year. No doubt
all the zuiks will be getting a workout during the festive season. Mine are
...
Secondly, my contribution to the group love-in that is "How I got into Oly".
I'll try and keep it brief, but it's been such a passionate affaire du
couer, that it will be hard to omit details.
It actually all started with a lie to get a job as sub-editor on my uni
paper - they wanted to know what kind of camera I had, I said an OM-10, it
being the only camera I could remember from a recently visited shop window.
At this point I'd never taken a photograph with an SLR, so I was crapping
myself.
After getting the job and figuring out that AF might actually help with
low-light/ band shots and quick action (student demos etc) I bought some
Canon stuff, which was my mainstay for a couple of years.
But during those years, money got OK, and I was able to invest in a manual
reflex. I was a bit more accomplished by this point and picked up an OM4 on
the strength of some reviews and endless reference to its compact size and
mind-blowingly accurate spot meter. I used it mostly for personal stuff, but
soon acquired a T32, 24.28 and 200 f4. The grand-high Doris Fang moment of
my life was when I picked up the secondhand 16mm f3.5 fish attached to an
EXC OM10 body for $AUD 195 - about 100US dollars.
I kept using both sysytems - Canon for work and Oly for pleasure for the
next year, but then became fed up with the Oly's inability to do slow-sync
flash, an important element of my working style (by this point I was
shooting mono and tranny simultaneously, so had co-opted my "pleasure"
system for work duties). I sold the Oly lot. I even had the book, the big
one with hundreds of full colour reports and photos taken with each and
every available Zuiko. Y'know - THE book. I have regretted it ever since.
After reviewing all my photos about a year and a half ago, I noticed a trend
to the Zuik shots being sharper and more detailed than the Almost Focussed
Canon shots. That did it. I was heading overseas and needed a light system
again, to travel with. I flogged all the Canon gear and picked up an OM4Ti
with 35mm f2, f280 flash, 135 2.8 and 28mm 3.5 for about 1000 AUD.
These days I use a 50 1.8, 50 1.4, 35 f2, 85 f2, 65-200 f4, and an off
-brand (Tokina) 24 2.8 until I can get a zuik again. I sold my 24 mm f2 to a
list member a coupla months back actually - didn't like it's colour
rendition at all, or its sharpness. The 2.8 kills it in those areas. Except
when close-focussing.
Anyhow, the upshot is - I ain't never going back. The small size, high bang
for buck, low weight - everything suits my style to a T. I don't do sync
flash anymore (despite its value in making images appear more dynamic)
because the whole point of the ambient stage lighting is to create
atmosphere - inject flash, and you can often kill it. I'm now an expert on
fast films and spot metering in low light/estimating reflectance. The
champagne 4Ti's shutter continues to soothe like an angel's whisper - it
never fails to awe me, every frame. I think I understand how Leicaphiles
feel. The sheer precision feeling inherent in the handling, winding and
shooting of an OM4Ti is something only really matched in well-preserved
versions of its equally beautiful mechanical ancestor, the OM1 or the
(drool, drool) OM3 (all manual, all mechanical, perfect meter ...).
I also own a 2N, Trip 35, a t20, an MjuII (a P&S with spot metering and a
razor sharp lens ... SIGH), and am picking up an XA and an OM1MD both in exc
cond and at bargain prices next week, so you tell ME - Do I Have a
Problem???????
Reuben
PS. Some of you guys have seriously got to check out the Elicar 3X
macro/telelconverter. It's a click-stopped zoom collared converter that acts
as a 3x telecon or a set of macro extensions that allow true 1:1 in the same
device. It performs OUTSTANDINGLY. Yes, the three stops light loss sucks,
but with decent fast film on a bright day, you barely even notice, and that
means my 85 f2 suddenly becomes a handholdable 255mm f5.6. With a tripod,
the zoom becomes a usable 195-600 f11!! Sharpness is cutting, and the macro
end performs, arguably, even better. Best accessory I own.
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