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Re: [OM] aperture ring question

Subject: Re: [OM] aperture ring question
From: Winsor Crosby <wincros@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 18:13:47 -0700
I have a brief question. I have sitting in front of me a Vivitar 28 2.5 and an Olympus 28 2.8. The aperture ring on the Vivitar can be set IN-BETWEEN aperture values while the Olympus will only set itself at the specific f-stops. A 35mm Vivitar also does this. Does anyone know why Vivitar chose to allow a more flexible aperture setting? Is this really more flexible? I have never really thought about it before.

Thanks,
-Bill

Since everyone else seems to have told you why it is better to not have click detents at the half stop marks, maybe someone should address your question about why Vivitar did this. :-)

I think the reason is the the Vivitar was designed to be used on many different cameras, some of which had shutter priority exposure systems instead of aperture priority exposure like Olympus. On many of these cameras you set the shutter dial on top of the camera and adjusted the aperture while looking through the viewfinder at the display. If the meter, such as an LED display, read between F Stops you could then set the aperture between F Stops. Meter displays seldom resolved readings to less than half a stop, so a click stop made it easy to find the place between a half stop over and a half stop under exposed. I think that Maitani planned to bring out the OM2 from the beginning and designed the lenses for an aperture priority auto exposure system even though it was a while before it followed the OM 1 into production. I think it is just the difference between a "custom tailored" and a "generic" design. But I could be wrong.

Winsor
--
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California, USA
mailto:wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx



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