Olympus OM-PC – CamerAgX – a new life for old gear

In the times of manual focus (film) cameras, Olympus followed a pretty simple rule to name its SLRs – there was a line of one digit OM bodies (OM-1, OM-2, OM-4, OM-2SP, OM-3, OM-4ti, OM-3ti) for the enthusiasts and the pros – those cameras were very compact, very well built, and fairly innovative.

And a second line of “two digit” models (OM-10, OM-20, OM-30, OM-40) – designed for amateurs – not as compact, with more plastic and fewer innovations. Obviously, the “two-digit” models were also much cheaper than their “one-digit” siblings.

As often, some of the amateur models went by a different name on the US market: the OM-20 was sold as the OM-G, and OM-40 as OM-PC – all leading Japanese cameras makers were using US-market specific model names in the eighties and nineties – probably as a way to fight grey market imports.

OM-40 / OM-PC

The OM-PC was launched in 1985, at the very end of the manual focus era (the revolutionary Minolta AF 7000 was launched in January that same year, and nothing would be the same afterwards).

Typically for an Olympus SLR from the eighties (like the OM-2SP or the OM-4), it has no on-off switch – and therefore tends to depletes its batteries rapidly.

Also typically for an Olympus of the eighties, its exposure metering system is a bit “different”: like the Nikon FA, it offers some primitive form of matrix metering (called ESP in this case).

Like the OM-2, the OM-40 determines the exposure by measuring the light reflected on the curtains of the shutter or on the film when the picture is being taken (they call that “OTF” for “on the film”, of course). OTF follows the conventional center weighted pattern.
In addition to OTF, Olympus also designed an “Electro-Selective Pattern” or “ESP”. It’s an embryonic evaluative system, which compares the luminosity of the center of the image with the periphery, and follows a clever algorithm to determine the right exposure (more detailed explanations on the OM-40 user manual, that can be downloaded from Buktus’ excellent site).

The user manual leaves no doubt that using the ESP in conjunction with the Program mode is what Olympus recommends, but an Aperture Priority and a manual modes are also available.

*The black plastic did not age well – note the white residue.*

The OM Zuiko bayonet mount remained the same all along the production run of OM cameras, which may explain why the implementation of the Program auto-exposure mode is also different from what is done by all other camera makers, and why there never was an Olympus OM camera with “Shutter Priority” auto-exposure.

Most camera makers had to create a new version of their lenses in order to support multiple auto-exposure modes: some have a lock on the smallest aperture (Nikon), some have a specific “A” position added to the aperture ring (Canon), and some needed a new version of their bayonet mount, with a proportional control of the iris (Yashica-Contax) or with electrical contacts (Pentax KA).

Olympus did not create a new line of lenses or modify their bayonet mount – they simply expected the photographer shooting with the OM-PC to select the narrowest aperture of the lens (generally f/16 on an Olympus Zuiko lens) when operating the camera in Program mode.

But Olympus being Olympus, there’s a catch: selecting the smallest aperture is not mandatory: if the photographer sets the aperture ring to another value (f/8 for example), the “program” will try and find the right shutter speed/aperture combination without going beyond the aperture selected on the aperture ring (f/8 in our case). Interesting, if not perfectly intuitive for the beginner, who is at risk of hitting the fastest shutter speed of the camera (1/1000 sec) on a bright sunny day without understanding what’s happening.

The ergonomics of the OM-PC is also typical of Olympus OM bodies, with the shutter speed ring at the periphery of the bayonet lens mount. It works great with Olympus Zuiko prime lenses (which have their aperture ring at the front of the lens, not at the back): the right hand holds the camera and presses the shutter release, and the left hand takes care of the shutter speed, the aperture and the focusing, with enough distance between each ring to avoid confusion.

Contrarily to most of their competitors, Olympus did not have a cheap line of lenses for amateurs, a line of better lenses for enthusiasts, and a “pro” line for… pro photographers. All OM Zuiko lenses were supposed to be of equal build quality and performance, the only technical differentiation between lenses of a given focal length being the maximum aperture. Therefore, for a given focal length, Olympus was typically proposing 3 models with a maximum aperture of f/3.5, f/2.8 and f/2.0, at different price points.

All lenses were very compact, with their own depth of field preview lever, and the aperture ring pushed at the front of the lens. Today, Olympus OM Zuiko lenses are easy to find, and the f/3.5 version of most lenses is the most common and very affordable.

*Maybe it looked modern in 1985 – lots of black plastic*

The so-so and the ugly

The viewfinder of the OM-PC is nowhere as good as what you find in a one-digit OM, but correct for a camera designed for the budget of amateurs. All the information is provided in a column at the left of the viewfinder (shutter speed, metering mode), but – as usual for cameras of this era, the photographer has no information about the aperture selected by the camera when operating in Program Mode.

Untypical for an Olympus OM camera, the OM-PC is ugly, and did not age well – it’s built of black plastic covered with a sort of artificial rubber, which tends to exude a white residue over time. And at the top of that, all this rubber cladding makes the camera bulky. Ugly and bulky, nothing of the grace of an OM-1 or OM-2.

As a conclusion

It’s difficult to love this camera – it’s not bad, it’s not expensive, the metering system is innovative, and I’ve no doubt it will produce nice pictures most of the time. But an OM-2 is in the same price range on the second hand market, and will be as good of a tool in the hands of a knowledgeable photographer. The OM-2 is so much more beautiful. And with such a great, wide and luminous viewfinder!

Like the “amateur-oriented” manual focus SLRs of the other major brands, the OM-PC was made obsolete by the Minolta AF-7000 and its cheaper derivatives, and rapidly disappeared from the market. Contrarily to the other four big Japanese camera makers, Olympus failed at launching an attractive autofocus camera system, and aimed their subsequent efforts at the point of shoot and bridge cameras markets, simply keeping two titanium clad and very expensive “single-digit” OM cameras (the OM-4ti and the OM-3ti) in their product line until the end of the century.

Olympus would only return to the interchangeable lens camera market after the switch to digital (with the E1 Four-Thirds camera of 2003). They followed up with an innovative and attractive line of Micro-Four-Thirds cameras in 2009, but lost momentum – and after suffering large financial losses year after year, they finally sold their camera business to a private equity firm a few years ago. We don’t know what the new owner will do with the brand, but considering they won’t have the profits made by Olympus with their medical equipment business to keep them afloat, it’s likely they will focus their diminished resources on fewer models and fewer markets. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

*The commands are organized in a very similar “Olympus” way*

One of the rules I had set when I started this blog fifteen years ago was that I would not write about a camera I had not tested with at least one roll of film. This post is one of the rare exceptions – there is no photo taken with the OM-PC. Because I could not resolve myself to shoot with an OM-PC, when I had an OM-2 waiting at my disposal.

The best OM (film) camera?

“Single digit” OM manual focus SLRs are some of the most beautiful and rewarding cameras of the film era – but some models are specially desirable:

OM-2 – it’s really two cameras in one – set it to manual, and you could believe you’re shooting with a semi automatic OM-1; push the selector to Auto, and a shutter speed scale shows up in the viewfinder, making it an aperture priority auto exposure camera. In my personal opinion, the OM camera to buy – not too complex, very compact, beautifully designed, and graced with an incredible viewfinder. The OM-2n is almost identical. Both run with easy to find SR44 batteries. You can find a good one for as little as $50.00.
OM-4t/OM-4ti – the t and the ti are the same camera – but with different names depending on the geography where they were sold, and on the finish of the top and bottom plates: made of titanium, some were painted black, some wore a more natural “champagne” color. Technically the OM-4t/ti is similar to the OM-4, except for the circuitry controlling the flash, which supports a “high speed sync” function. On those models, Olympus also fixed the battery drainage issue seen on the OM-2SP, OM-3 and OM-4. All the OM-4s have a very elaborate multi-spot metering option, and two high key and low key exposure compensation buttons on the top plate. The exposure values sampled (up to eight) are shown on a small LCD bar graph display at the bottom edge of the viewfinder. To me, it’s far too complex, but some photographers swear by it (and Canon shamelessly copied the multi-spot and high key/low key features on their T90). The champagne finish tends to be fragile and the cameras often look scruffy, but the black models are to die for if you like compact, all metal cameras. The scruffy ones sell for at least $250.00, nice copies can go up to $1000.00.
The OM-3ti was produced in very small volumes (assembled by hand – they were built using freshly manufactured OM4ti models as donor cameras). Not surprisingly considering how it was manufactured, the OM-3ti was also extremely expensive – in Leica M territory. Used copies are currently selling for anything between $1,500 and $3,000.

I would avoid: the OM-1 (because it needs mercury oxide batteries, which are impossible to find), the OM-2SP, OM-3 (non-t or non-ti models), and OM-4 (non-t or non-ti) because they all deplete their batteries extremely quickly due to issues with the design of their electronic circuits. Those issues were addressed with the t or ti versions of the OM-3 and OM-4.

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