<<I don't think the OM family is your best choice. While we all use and love
the equipment, it is at the end of its life. There are not going to be new
features, bodies, lenses, etc. What you see is what you get. As much as I
like OM (and you'll soon discover from the list that I may have the
zuikoholism disease worse than anyone), I wouldn't recommend it to you.
Look at something else - Canon, Nikon, etc. for a long-life choice.>>
This is definitely NOT a flame, but I'm not sure if I agree with Tom
completely. I'm sure others are better qualified to respond, but I find the
single-digit OMs very rugged and expect them to continue for years. Maybe
I'm being optimistic b/c I'm young and am investing in what _is_ a dying
system, but my OM-2 is probably a '75 model (older than me!) and still
kicking. I can't say that for my brother's wonderbrick. It died and when he
took it a camera shop, they said the lifespan was really only supposed to be
about three years! Maybe the salesperson was full of it, but no salesperson
would ever put the lifespan of a single digit OM around 3 years, or even 10
years. Granted there are good reasons to go a wonderbrick, and I'll probably
pick one up eventually for the super-fast super teles simply b/c that's an
area where a manual focus camera can easily lead to missed shots. Someone
else mentioned this, and I'll say it again: get one on eBay (or even better
from a list member) and it you'll probably be able to get rid of it for close
to what you paid if you decide you don't like it (provided you take care of
it). I can't say the same for wonderbricks. They are like computers that
lose their value as technology changes. OMs on the other hand, are not in
the technology race and are 'tools' (as someone said earlier) and not 'toys',
especially the amatuer wonderbricks Tom is recommending. Furthermore, the
OMs are part of a system, where as some other companies are less so. Going
olympus allows you to get some really unique and professional lenses at
reasonable price. However, I think the real decision comes down to whether
you want to take snapshots for the record or you want to use your creativity
to 'capture' something. If you are looking for snapshots, then go the easy
route and get a wonderbrick, but if you yearn for the other, then you will
probably be willing to take the extra time to learn photography and be less
concerned about manual focus and manual control. Tripping the shutter will
become the easy part!
That's just my $0.02, and I'm sure others completely disagree...but's
that okay too. I hope to hear their thoughts :)
--p.j.
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