OM1 Newbie Questions

[Rich B NYC]

I've been shooting with Nikons and Leicas for nearly 40 years so am

familiar with the basics.

 

Yesterday I came across a bargain on a camera that I've always

admired. An almost mint OM1 MD with a Zuiko 50mm f1.4, winder and a

lot of other stuff. Short story..the guy was going digital and the

kit followed me home.

 

Everything seems to be working fine but I haven't had a chance to run

a roll through it. Before I do, I'm hoping that you Olympians will

take pity on a Nikonian and answer a few questions.

 

1- What is the metering pattern? I have the instruction manual, but

it doesn't seem to explain the metering pattern.

 

2- What do you guys do about obtaining batteries? Mercury cells are

banned here in the US. Are those Wein "air cells" that I've heard

about any good? I'm used to shooting meterless with my Leicas, but

I'd like the option of having a working meter on the Oly.

 

3- Part of the package was a Vivitar Series 1 28-90 f2.8-f3.5 zoom. I

don't use third-party lenses, but the Vivitar Series 1 lenses seem to

be held in high esteem. I can sell it to KEH for more than I paid for

the entire kit. Any suggestions?

 

By the way, after handling the OM1 for a few minutes, I now

understand what the fuss is about. Other than the "weird" placement

of the shutter speed dial, it felt really comfortable in my hands.

Mirror slap is almost non-existent and the shutter is quiet.

 

Many thanks for your help.

 

Rich

[neild]

Hi Rich, hope it all goes well for you!

<p>

1. Metering is centre-weighted.<br>

2. Wein cells are supposed to be good - I myself have an adapter which uses a germanium diode to reduce the voltage of a 1.5V silver oxide battery to 1.35V (or thereabouts).<br>

3. I only use Oly lenses so I cannot comment (but I'd sell it).

<p>

I'll try to find out where I got that adapter from (a guy in Holland I think).

[tomweis]

FYI, you can have the camera overhauled and the battery circuitry replaced with an

"alkaline-friendly" circuit here: http://zuiko.com/. Yes, you can use the Wein cell instead,

but a) they don't last long, and b) this guy does a great job of really fine tuning the

camera, replacing foam, etc. Enjoy your OM-1! I carry mine every day.

[richard_oleson]

There's no such thing as an "Alkaline friendly" circuit. You can make the camera "Silver friendly", but alkaline cells don't know what their own voltage is from one day to the next, and you can't correct for that. Silver cells are smaller than the PX625, so if you have the camera's circuitry modified you then need to physically adapt the battery to the box.... a rubber O-ring or a short piece of bell wire rolled into a circle work fine for that.

 

The CRIS adapter provides both the electrical and the physical adaptation in one neat little piece - a good and economical solution that doesn't require sending the camera away for service.

 

Personally, I use #675 Zinc/Air hearing aid batteries. They are electrically identical to the Wein cells, but in a smaller package that needs to be adapted as described above. Voltage is correct and stable, closer to the original mercury profile than an adapted silver cell (which is still quite good enough). In my OM1 they last about 8 months each, which is not as long as a mercury or silver cell - but they cost less than $1 each, which is also not as much as a mercury or silver cell.

 

I have notes on all of your possible options here: http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-111.html

 

Metering is center weighted, but less so than in Nikons. It is also sensitive to stray light through the eyepiece, so be careful in backlighted situations if you wear glasses.

 

I'm not a big zoom fan; if I could sell the zoom to pay for the rest, I would do it. Having said that, the 28-90 is a good lens and if you want a zoom in that range you should keep it.

 

Personally, I find the OM1 shutter speed dial to be one of the features that makes it handle so much better than other cameras. You don't have to take your hands off the controls to change speeds, a characteristic that forces most manual cameras into a sort of "shutter priority" operating mode that I very much dislike. Also, although the speeds are not indicated in the finder, with practice you will find that, due to the placement of the finger grips on the dial, your hand is more comfortable at speeds from 60 up than at slower speeds, and this serves as a quick warning that you're getting out of hand-held territory.

[lex_jenkins]

According to my Shipman's guides, some of the earliest OM-1's used full frame metering. Later Olympus modified this to be more centerweighted, altho' it still metered a larger than usual section compared with other cameras of that era.

 

You may need to be careful of stray sidelight entering the eyepiece. Because the prism houses the metering cell (cells?) exposure error can be induced by stray light entering the eyepiece. Olympus offered largish, cone shaped eyecups for this model. Later, when the metering cells were moved down into the body with the OM-2's and later OM's where they were less vulnerable to extraneous light, the large eyecup was replaced by a more comfortable eyepiece that was less likely to slide off and become lost.

 

The Wein cells are nothing more than cheap zinc air batteries inside a metal collar that forms the size and shape of a 625 button cell. They're overpriced for what you get. I tried a couple and they were dead out of the package.

 

Ordinary 675 zinc air hearing aid batteries are good enough. They're relatively cheap and are good enough for accurate metering with Velvia. You'll need to replace the button cell every 3-6 months.

 

The Vivitar Series 1 28-90/2.8-3.5 zoom (actually a varifocal) is an excellent third party lens from that era. My OM-1 came with the same lens, and I bought another for my Canon FD gear. It's sharp and contrasty stopped down at least one stop, altho' I found the softness wide open at 90mm pleasant for portraits and subjects that didn't need to be razor sharp. It wasn't simply mushy like some lenses. There's quite a bit of barrel distortion at the wide end and too much field curvature for the "macro" focusing to be really useful. Light falloff at the corners is visible between 28-50mm but is gone by f/5.6-f/8. This lens was nearly as good at 50mm as my 50/1.8 Canon FD pushbutton release type.

 

Because it's a varifocal it must be refocused as the focal length is changed. Some folks claim this design enabled easier follow focus for subjects moving toward or away from the photographer. Actually, I think this was just a side benefit discovered after the fact. It was simply easier and more cost effective for Vivitar to design a varifocal with high quality optics than a true zoom.

[Rich B NYC]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate all the info.

[William Kahn]

Mine followed me home, too, and my wife even let me keep it.

 

2. I've used a PX625 alkaline in mine from the start, with no problems. The metering is consistent and accurate. There may be minor voltage fluctuations in various temperature conditions, but I always bracket my shots, anyway.

 

3. Normally, I'm leery of third party lenses also, but I have a Vivitar 70-150mm f3.8 zoom for the Oly and I like it. Try yours out first before you dump it. You may be pleasantly surprised.

[rahul_deshpande1]

Just to add to Richard's note...if you use the 675 hearing aid cell, you will need an O-ring #9 to hold it in place since the size of the cell is much smaller than the well. Its sold for about 30 cents a piece at Home Depot.

Good luck with this beauty...

[richard_oleson]

Back to the alkaline question:

 

What the alkaline battery does is to start out at 1.5 volts, giving you a bit of underexposure right at the start but not too bad. The voltage quickly drops off to about 1.4 volts and stays in the 1.2-1.4 volt range, giving pretty decent exposure readings (on negative film that can handle the overexposure at 1.2 volts), up until the battery is about 50% used up. From this point on, the voltage continues to decrease more or less steadily, giving increasing amounts of overexposure as time passes. By the time the alkaline cell is used up, its voltage is less than 1.0 volt; I've recorded overexposure with an alkaline-powered OM1 in the range of 2.5 - 3 f/stops.

 

Designed for mercury cells that performed steadily until they quickly died, the OM1 does not have a "Battery Check" function. You will get a large number of good exposures using an alkaline 625A cell in the OM1, but the only way you'll know when it's not giving good readings any more is when you start seeing bad exposures, or when it gets so bad that you notice the readings don't look right for the light you're in. If it gets to this point, you could have done as well without a meter. You can make this work if you have another camera or meter to check your OM against periodically to see that they still agree (do this check in bright light: all meters read the same in darkness, the voltage error goes up with increasing light levels)

 

:)=

[Rich B NYC]

Sounds like I can get away with the 675 hearing aid battery using print film. Once I establish a base reading I can probably fine tune it for slide film.

 

I'll probably take a few shots with the zoom just to see if it's worth keeping. I've never been into zoom lenses but it covers the basic focal lengths.

[skip_williams]

My only addition is that you should consider a full overhaul if you want to use the camera for any length of time. The foam starts to rot on OM-1's and needs to be replaced. The degree of rot depends on the environment it was stored in all these years. The biggest issue with foam rot is under the top plate. There is foam cushioning the pentaprism which WILL begin to deteriorate. As it does, it eats away the pentaprism's silver coating and ruins the finder.

 

The camera could easily be 30 years old, esp if it's not an OM1n. Consider the CLA, it also includes normal speed asjustment, contact cleaning, etc.

 

Skip

[lex_jenkins]

Richard has some excellent info and diagrams on his website that might be interesting to you.

 

FWIW, I've never needed an O-ring or anything else to ensure the smaller, thinner 675 button cells make reliable contact in several cameras in which I've used 'em. At most I've added a wee bit of tension to the contacts by gently prying up the flat springs or stretching the coil springs. Easy does it, a little goes a long way.

[douglas_green1]

Good luck with your OM-1. I think it's one of the great 35mm SLRs ever made, and I'm a Nikon user, but I also own and use a couple of OM-1n cameras.

 

I also recommend the 675 zinc-air cells with a #9 O-ring spacer. If you want, I also have an app note on using those batteries, which I'll send you if you e-mail me.

 

The vivitar 28-90mm Series 1 zoom (actually, it's a varifocal, not a true zoom) is pretty good, but it is also quite heavy, and IMHO, it doesn't balance well on the OM-1. It's also a tad low in contrast for my taste. If I were you, I'd pick up one of the Olympus 28mm f2.8 or 28mm f3.5 primes, for cheap on ebay. The f2.8 will set you back around $60-75, and the f3.5 will hit you for maybe $45-50, and these tiny lenses are really fine optics that now sell for a pittance.

 

The 65-200mm f4 Zuiko is also a quite good zoom, and quite small as well. Incidentally, my Olympus kit is just that: A 28mm f2.8 zuiko, a 50mm f1.4, and the 65-200 zoom. For anything else, I use Tamrons that I also use with my Nikons (a 17mm f3.5, and a 90mm f2.5 macro).

 

As for the shutter speed ring on the lensmount - if you use the OM-1 enough, you'll get used to it to the point that you'll wonder why all cameras don't have it there.

[todd frederick]

One final thought:

 

The OM-1 is a truly fine camera, and I use it often in manual mode with a hand held meter. It doesn't take much longer to read such a meter than to fiddle with the internal metering system and batteries.

 

Think of it as a finely crafted Leica, with no internal metering system, like a Leica M3, and use a hand meter. I did that for years with my leica and also with my OM-1.

 

Depending on your film choice, given some exposure latitude, you can also use the "Sunny 16" rule (which I drop to "Sunny 11 rule", or you can use simple esposure guides.

 

I use my OM-1 system for b/w, and I usually just guess the exposure. If you use film with a wide exposure latitude you should have no problem.

 

Now days I either scan the negs or get a CD made, and I can then make minor corrections in Photoshop.

 

I just bought a beautiful Yashica-A TLR camera for $30 (one of the first made) and it has no meter, so I will use my old Weston meter to help me.

 

What more can I say? We are too pampered now days. Have fun and do experiment.

[Rich B NYC]

Todd,

 

I have to agree that the OM-1 is a really fine camera. I've always used Nikons and Leicas and the OM-1 stands right up to them in quality.

 

Last week I was shooting with a hand held meter but haven't finished the roll yet. I'm used to shooting with a hand held with my Leica M2 and a Topcon 35L.

 

I generally use the meter only to get a base reading to cover the general conditions. After that, it's "sunny 11". I also prefer it to sunny 16 due to better shadow detail.

 

Hopefully I'll finish off the roll in a day or two and get it developed. I don't bother with prints and simply scan the negs myself.

 

They only thing that's stopping me from picking up a medium format is that my scanner won't handle 120/220.

 

I've "unpampered" myself after a short period of owning a Nikon N80. It's a good camera, but I simply hated all the "features". Sold it after six months and never looked back.

 

My "high tech" camera is a Nikon FE2. Other than that, it's Nikon FM, Leica M6, Leica M2 and Topcon 35L..and now the OM1. Nice simple cameras that do everything that I need them to do.

 

Rich

[luisarguelles]

Tod, I agree with you about using a hand-held metering system with the OM-1. I do the same with my Leica M2 and Rolleiflex, so it's second nature for me. In fact, I only use the OM-1 metering system when travelling very light or when I have plenty of time to measure the exposure with the camera. And about the OM-1, I always think that it's a mixture of Leica and Nikon, just the reflex camera Leica should have made.

[todd frederick]

I did serious darkroom printing since the late 1950's but don't have one now.

 

I am scanning negs, but my flatbed scanner is best suited for MF and LF negs, and when I scan 35mm there are too many flaws to deal with.

 

If you don't have a darkroom, and want to do some digital printing, use a chromogenic film such as Ilford XP-2 Super, have it developed at a mini-lab, and have a high resolution CD made from the negs.

 

That will give you a very nice print.

 

Regarding the OM-1, I think it is very underrated. Just look at the features and the quality of the optics.

 

I now use Olympus digital camera with the same enthusiasm and I also use the early OM lenses with my digital camera with the digital adapter.

 

Many possibilities.

 

See the photo below taken with an Om 50mm f/1.8 and an Olympus E-1 digital camera.<div></div>

[cdb913]

Hey richard, I have been shotting with a mint OM-1 for about 8 months now(simalar situation,guy going digital,tons of stuff w/the camera)All I have to say is that you will fall in love with this camera.The placement of the shutter speed dial is something that I have come to love the most;it is very easy to adjust without moving the camera away from your eye.I agree with using a handheld meter on all older cameras,as older lightmeters can go bad.I use a gossen luna pro that I got off of ebay for around 85$.If you have the chance,and are interested in macro work,get a hold of some OM macro gear.It is simply put the sharpest stuff ever made for 35mm,which is no surprise considering that olympus started as a microscope company.

[Rich B NYC]

Cameron,

 

Thanks for the information.

 

I'm using a Sekonic 308BII that I picked up a few years ago to use with a Leica M2. Very accurate as long as you remember to count the "tenths" of a stop.

 

I just got my first roll back (Fuji Superia 100) and am more than happy with the 50mm f1.4. Mine is the single-coated version which isn't supposed to be that great. I really don't see a problem with it.

 

It's doubtful that I'll get into the OM system in any big way. I already have both Nikon(SLR) and Leica (RF) systems and really don't need a third.

 

The guy was virtualy giving away the OM1 and I couldn't resist it. No regrets, though.

 

Rich