Question about Olympus OM10

[shoebox]

My boss just gave me an old camera that he no longer uses. It's an Olympus OM10. I play

with it a bit and I'm already in love with it. I've the following questions about this camera:

 

1) I don't think the build-in meter is working. It doesn't matter as I have a light meter

myself. I googled Olympus OM10 and found that this camera only works in aperture

priority mode. This is strange because if I flip the camera to 'Manual/adaptor' mode, I can

use the camera in as a manuel camera. All shutter speeds sound accurate. So my question

is can this camera be used in manual mode?

 

2) It seems that this camera won't work without battery, is this normal?

 

3) It comes with a 50mm f1.8 lens. Is this a good lens? Which other olympus lenses are

good?

 

Thanks. I really like this camera.

 

Jeff

[basscheffers]

1) Not sure about your meter, what are the symptons? Your camera then must have the "manual adapter" installed. This is actually an optional module you can remove.

 

2) Yup, perfectly normal as it has an electronic shutter.

 

3) It depends on which 50/1.8 you have, but in general it is quite good. Also very nice and very affordable second hand are the 50/1.4, 24/2.8 and 100/2.8, which make up quite a nice set as they share the same filter thread.

 

I wrote a bit of an overview of the Olympus OM system many moons ago that you may find interesting. It's right here on photo.net:

 

http://www.photo.net/equipment/olympus/olympus-OM-system

 

Make sure to read the comments to as they have some valuable stuff in there too in the form of corrections and additional info.

[shoebox]

Hi Bas,

 

When I use the camera in AUTO mode, it always choose the 1 sec shutter speed no matter

what I do. Also, when I look into the viewfinder, the red LED is always on beside the 1 sec

shutter speed slide bar so I think the meter is not working properly.

 

The battery is new so I don't think it's a battery problem. (I use a 3V Lithium batteries :

Kodak K58L)

 

Thx

 

Jeff

[mark u]

Lithium cells are NOT recommended:

 

http://brashear.phys.appstate.edu/lhawkins/photo/olympus.faq.html#ques_B1

 

Try silver oxide ones.

[richard_oleson]

I don't think lithium batteries are going to make your meter read strangely, they just don't last as long as silver cells before the camera's low voltage cutoff control shuts it down.

 

it is common for OM automatics to give slower than expected speeds when you fire them without film in them, due to the off-the-film metering system... but this would not be reflected in the viewfinder readout. It does sound to me like you have a meter problem in the camera, which would require a repair that may be beyond the value of the camera. If you have the manual adapter and have a meter, I would just keep using it that way as long as it lasts.

 

Olympus lenses are good. Like any other make, some are especially good, but there aren't any dogs.... select lenses based on the focal length you want, rather than on which one is best, and you'll be fine.

[sean_mckinney]

As has been mentioned, to work in manual the camera needs the manual adapter that attaches to the left hand side of the lense mount. They go for about �10UK on ebay.