geoffrey_r_jackson

<p>Use the universal adapter that works in all these cases: buy'em, sell'em. Find some OM lenses, as advised: buy'em. Advertise your Nikkor lenses: sell'em. Works perfectly every time, no brain surgery, no alchemy, no regrets six months later that you took a blow-torch and an angle-grinder to your Nikkor lenses, when your neighbour wants to buy them from you. (Don't even think of doing anything as sacrilegious as violating a Zuiko shifter!)<br>

If you are reasonably handy with your, er, hands, take the time to buy and fit a kit to renovate the light-seals and the mirror buffers in the OM2n. It's a nice, satisfying way to spend an hour, from start to finish, all clean, tidy and put away, and it will pay you back a thousand fold when you see the strange patterns on photos taken by a less prudent Olympaholic.</p>

What I love about film? The commitment: you cannot release the shutter ten times in the blithe hope of getting a

result. You have to do all the thinking before you activate your digit. ("Digit" not as in "digital".) Even if

you are (still) able to do your own lab-work, you cannot afford to waste the film or the photo opportunities.

I became disabled and consequently very depressed about 18 years ago, and decreed that I was no longer fit enough

to do photography, wail, wail, moan and moan. So I literally got rid of my 1977 model OM2 and all its extensive

lenses and accessories to the first person who offered me anything at all for it. But I hadn't killed the

photography bug, and went through a point and shoot APS and two compact digital cameras. Miserable. So I

decided to go back to Olympus with a reasonable amount of kit: an E-420 with the two packaged lenses, the macro

35mm f/3.5, the dedicated flash, a tripod and bits and bobs.

I was a happy bunny for some weeks, until I was approached, while out shooting, by someone who said he had

noticed the Olympus straps. He showed me an OM2n with the 35-70mm f/4 zoom, which he was holding so nonchalantly

in one hand I hadn't already noticed it. He was polite about the E-420+, but I knew he wasn't really interested

and we spent most of our time discussing OMs from 1 to 4Ti. I was really jealous of him by the time he left, and

the next day I was off on an OM hunt, with the initial guidance of my neighbouhood photographic shop.

I now have more equipment than it would be polite to list completely, based on an as new OM-2S program with its

own set of as new lenses, and 2 other OM-2Sp and an OM-2s that are there to earn their keep, with functionally

100% lenses, the lot being not exactly pretty to look at, but great to use. Happy, me? No, blissful!

In fact I'm almost resigned to taking the mother of all hits to just be rid of my really nice digital kit. It

doesn't challenge me. I can just shoot all day long, stopping from time to time to jettison the dross, and only

start to commit to the shots I've taken when I move them over to a portable HDD, after a final thinning out process.

I don't even enjoy the work I can do on a shot with my PC: it feels more like a way to lower my up-front

standards than a facility for improving my photography. I'm no Luddite; that E-420 is a little gem, but I

haven't "bonded" with it, nor with what I can do with it. A little gem? Yes. My little gem? Nope! It just

doesn't ever give me any satisfaction at getting a good shot in the bag in one shot, maybe two if it seems worth

it. Nor does it infuriate me when I find that a "good" shot was actually a load of rubbish, and I need that to

make me try ever harder. I'm too old to relive my previous life with an OM2, and anyway I'm not the maudlin

kind, but I am as passionate about photography now as I was over 50 years ago. with my Brownie Box.

But I might not ditch the digital. Macro of insects and plants can really chew through a roll of film, for one.

But it's just great for photography of our grandchildren while keeping their grandmother happy. Take That! yes

dear... Look, Now! yes dear... What Did You Get? look dear... Mmm, Not Bad! thank you dear...

Now if someone can point me in the direction of a sustained source of colour negative film from a major brand,

not out-of-date and less than 200 ASA, I will be happier still. The best I found was a stock of 5 reels of Fuji

Pro 160 ASA, of which I was rationed to just 2. Help! (Please, sustained sources only; I don't want to have to

repeat this every 2 rolls.) I know I should not be so narrow-minded about the date, but...