As new Olympus OM10 & accessories

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During a clear out of my fathers house I came across an Olympus OM10 which has never been used. He reckoned it was bought in 1981. Along with it was a new in the box electronic T20 flash and a new in box Zuiko 50mm 1.8 lens.

I have no knowledge when it comes to photography but it certainly seems like a nice classic SLR. Any of you experts able to say how collectible (or not) something like this is?

Any feedback gratefully received!
 
Don't know prices for never used but I bought a very nice condition OM10 and 50 1.8 lens for £20. I sold it for £30 though :)
 
Unfortunately... it's not at all valuable, to a collector or any-one else, really.

The OM10 was the entry level amateur version of the Olympus OM range, and I seem to recall the 'kit' comprising camera, 50mm std lens and flash sold for about £100 or so when new. The 'pro' grade single digit OM's, would have been 5x that or more, body-only.
Small, light, easy to use with Aperture-Priority Automatic Exposure (Fully-Manual operation offered by accessory Manual Adapter), the OM10 was a very popular camera in it's day; able to take the well supported OM series lenses, but the camera itself didn't prove as robust as offerings for other makers, and in later years, the system became obsolete as avante-guarde Olympus started pushing new technologies, significantly in the ametuer range, trying to promote 'all in one' super-zoom SLR's packed with features.
As a result, through the 90's the entire OM series fell into the bargain basement. As a student at the time, starting SLR photography with an OM10, it was something of a delight to be able to build up a good selection of pretty good quality lenses fairly cheaply, and upgrade to better pro-grade camera bodies as I could afford it. Meanwhile, I, and many others, treated OM10's as 'Disposable' film holders! Seriously, at one time, I could buy an OM10 body second hand in Jessops for £5 or £10 second hand. Ironically, the manual adapters for them were often more expensive!

Today?
Rather depressing, I'm afraid. Film Cameras, even high end cameras, that in years past we could only wish for, tend not to be very expensive. They need film to take a photo. That costs money every time you press the shutter, where modern digital cameras once you have bought the hardware are almost free of running costs. They also usually need more know-how to use, and are less user friendly than automatic everything digital cameras, which thanks to modern consumer electronics are also incredibly cheap, relatively.
The camera bag I have full of Olympus OM kit, built up through the 1990's was valued for insurance at over £2000 when I first took oit home & contents insurance about 2001 when I bought my house...... now? With a Pro level OM4 body at it's heart.... I would be lucky to get 1/10th of that!
If your OM and accessories are genuinely unused, in original boxes, and can be shown to be 100% functional.... it may have some collectors value.... but I would doubt it would get close to triple digits.
Without the boxes? It might struggle to make two digits!
If you check e-bay, dealer's are asking around £50 for what they describe as 'mint' condition OM10's with manual adapter and lens. Private auctions, they are fetching maybe £20-£25, and there is absolutely no shortage of them on offer... quick look and there were over 200 on offer from UK sellers, as I type!

Practically... they were, as long as they worked a very nice camera to use.
The Zuiko 50mm is a gem of a lens; it is incredibly fast at f1.8, that's probably three stops faster than the fastest appartures commonly found on, well anything but very expensive modern lenses, and can give wonderfully shallow depth of focus, and help make best use of slow film in low light.
It's optical quality is also very very high; far better than you get from most modern 'entry-level' digital SLR kit lenses.

(Most of the value in your camera kit, will be in that lens; I understand that Olympus reverted to the OM series mounting for thier micro- 4/3rds digital system cameras, and owners of such seek out these old lenses, despite being manual focus, for their fast appature speed)

Film.... of course STILL beats digital for quality ...... (in my opinion at least!)
Depends a lot on the film of course, and more on the photographer... but.... modern digitals, certainly the entry level and amateur level models, tend to be APS size sensors, 16x24mm, about half the size of a 'full-frame' 35mm camera or pro-grade digital. Twice the area to capture image forming light, roughly means twice the image quality.... so in an old 35mm film camera, with half decent film, you have the potential to get pro-level photo's... and in thier day, of course, the OM10's often took pro-level photo's.

The metering system in the OM10, is the unique 'off the film' center weighted average system used in the pro-level models. Its party trick, was in low-light, long exposure situations, where in Auto Exposure mode, the meter would change the shutter speed, during the actual exposure period, if the light level falling on the film changed. - Great for fire-work displays, or light-painting type of shots.

The OM10, lacked some of the more sophisticated metering modes of the single digit range, like spot or multi-spot metering, but with the manual adapter, you did at least have the option of full manual control.

And then there was the thyristor regulated, TTL-Meter linked flash-sync, that allowed the camera to set the flash power setting depending on ambient light-level, and sync flash up speeds above 1/60th... I'm not sure without checking long hidden of lost manuals what the upper flash sync speed was, of if it was all speeds to the maximum 1/1000th shutter speed, with some flashes. (Using a normal flash, you had to select shutter speeds beneath 1/60th, which meant you HAD to have the manual adapter, or the shutter curtain would mask half the frame before the flash actually went off! DONT ask my how I know that... answer ought to be obvious!)

It was a very advanced and useful camera, and still is. It was very nice to use, and for a beginner actually quite easy to use, and could, and still can take some incredibly good photo's.... especially with that gem of a 50mm standard lens.

But, it isn't a robust camera. The plastic fascias behind the lens at the top under the penta-prism usually fall off; the shutter curtains can go brittle with age, and in their day, there were grumblings about them tearing or pin-holing, though main gripe was that if dust got into the mechanism, the electro-magnets that control the shutter speeds could gum up, among other known faults. Though personally, out of probably three or four OM10's I have owned... they only ever died from gross abuse! (one got rather wet at a rock concert; another got dropped off a ruined monastery wall!)

Bottom line? The OM10 was never a camera to be put on a pedestal and admired. It was a camera to get people 'in' to SLR photography and taking pictures..... its old hat and low tech, and of very little financial value, but it's still pretty darn good at what it was built for, and my advice would be go buy a roll of film and give the thing a whirl, or pass on to some-one else who might.
 
Wow Mike that was a lot of typing for a carp camera :) There are better cameras for a few £££s more, unless you have have a nice selection of very good Zuiko lenses, but if you have them why use a OM10.
 
Thanks for all the replies (particularly Mike!). At least I now know what I have albeit not something worth much money!
 
Practically... they were, as long as they worked a very nice camera to use.
The Zuiko 50mm is a gem of a lens; it is incredibly fast at f1.8, that's probably three stops faster than the fastest appartures commonly found on, well anything but very expensive modern lenses, and can give wonderfully shallow depth of focus, and help make best use of slow film in low light.
It's optical quality is also very very high; far better than you get from most modern 'entry-level' digital SLR kit lenses.

(Most of the value in your camera kit, will be in that lens; I understand that Olympus reverted to the OM series mounting for thier micro- 4/3rds digital system cameras, and owners of such seek out these old lenses, despite being manual focus, for their fast appature speed)

Interesting info, most of it true, but I don't agree with this paragraph. All SLR camera makers made 50mm f1.8 (or thereabouts) lenses (and still do generally) which were the standard lens sold with the camera bodies of the time, and they are good lenses but generally quite cheap. The cheapest lens in the current Canon EOS line is the 50mm f1.8 for example. The Olympus m4/3rds system cameras use the m4/3rds mount, not the OM mount, although adapters are available for almost all older lens systems onto m4/3rds, so it can be used on the new stuff.

Still, a perfect condition, fully working OM10 would make a good camera to use even if it doesn't have a lot of value now.
 
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I think, to bring it down to a very basic level, what we are saying is.....put a film in it, shove the lens on it and go out and take some pictures. They may have only been a cheap end camera but they still take excellent shots and are a very neat little package.

Use it and have fun.

Cheers

Andy
 
I'd echo what them other blokies have already said.

You can see the history of OM 35mm bodies here:

http://star.ucl.ac.uk/~rwesson/esif/om-sif/bodygroup/bodytable.htm

The OM System bodies OM1, 2 and 4 variants are popular cameras at a range of prices. The OM3 was made in small quantities and has acheived rocking horse poo status and so go for frankly silly money:cuckoo:

Oiks like me have the tendency to buy up cheap OM10 kit on EBay to split off and sell the lenses separately - often/usually for more than the same lens with the OM10 - and split the OM10 body to get at the pentaprism - the older system bodies have a decaying foam problem which creates clag in the viewfinder.

After trying most things, 99% of my 35mm film is shot through Olympus OM system bodies: why? I just like the ergonomics.

Advice? Get you to Poundland and invest a quid in a roll of Agfa Vista, get some cheap batteries off EBay and have a play!
 
It was my first SLR with the nifty fifty and manual adapter, second hand, mid 80's can't remember what I paid for it but had to pay extra for the adapter, never got another lens, did not need one, had some great B/W from it, yeah it gummed up after about 2 years but I did love it and that lens

Helen
 
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I've had a second look at my dad's OM-10 this weekend, and I have to say, I'm in love with the huge, bright viewfinder. It's light too, and small, and the aperture-priority shooting is going to make for quick, easy photos. I'm going to be keeping it in my bag for a while :)
 
I've had a second look at my dad's OM-10 this weekend, and I have to say, I'm in love with the huge, bright viewfinder. It's light too, and small, and the aperture-priority shooting is going to make for quick, easy photos. I'm going to be keeping it in my bag for a while :)

..and with Zuiko lenses there is nothing stopping you getting pro results...happy shooting.
 
I've had a second look at my dad's OM-10 this weekend, and I have to say, I'm in love with the huge, bright viewfinder. It's light too, and small, and the aperture-priority shooting is going to make for quick, easy photos. I'm going to be keeping it in my bag for a while :)

I loved mine when I started out at 18 get out and use it.
 
I'll echo what nearly every one else is saying, buy a roll and go play. I'm lucky to have 2 OM10's and an OM1 as my main, think they're great.
 
I also have two OM-10 bodies, the 50mm, 28mm and 135mm primes, and absolutely love using them!

Go have a play :thumbs:
 
Wow, how did this thread come up on my home screen? Just realised it is about as old as the camera in question :lol:
 
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