I have been using OMs for the past 8 months or so. THe last time I used a
manual focus SLR regularly was years ago with a Nikon FM2 and Nikon F2.
I had always had a soft spot for the Nikon F series. I owned an F2 and was
using an F4. The F3 was always something that I had admired but never bought
because I couldn't justify it.
Today I went to the camera shop and asked to handle the Nikon F3. It was a wave
of nausea that came over me in seconds. Used as I have been to the elegant
compact lines of the OM cameras, I could not have been prepared for the
monstrosity in my hands.
It had looked compact enough from a distance, but it was weighing a ton now. My
fingers tried to get to grips with the immensity of its solid body. For some
brief moments I was reminded of those times when I had handled a russian built
camera. Those were big, spartan and noisy affairs that reeked of
utilitarianism. The Nikon F3 though more refined, had the same kind of air now
that I had been used to the compact elegance of the Om4Ti.
How I tried to palm the body of the F3 with no success, how I lamented the
thickess of the barrel of the 50mm lens on the camera, how I repeatly tried but
could not imagine this lump of metal swinging leisurely from my shoulder as I
walked the streets with ice cream in one hand and girlfriend in another. No, it
would shout out its unobstrusive presence by its weight, it would demand to be
heard, it would say, " I am here dammit!"
My OM4ti has never been so rude. Its always been there when I needed it,
disappeared silently when I didn't, and always giving me that space to admire
its beauty when I was down. So taken have I been to the OM experience that this
brief flirtation with the F3 had ended in disaster.
I was still in shock when I handed the camera back to the shop assistant. My
hands were unused to the wider grip I had to employ with holding the body.
Recoiling from the disgust and the nausea, I could have dropped the damm thing
and not cared less. Such was the depth of my emotion.
I am now a wiser man, but also a worried one. What will replace my OM's should
supply dry up? Certainly nothing on the market today. Even Leica SLRs seem big
and unrefined. I will endeavour to make a secret stash of OM bodies for my
pleasure for a long time.
--Adi
< 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 >
|