How good is the OM10?

clud17

clud17

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Chris
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Hi,

I had a basic film camera many moons ago but i didnt know how to use properly and didnt do it justice. I have now developed some skills and learn't a little of this art with a DSLR. This week i was looking through a some of my dads old gear and picked up his Olympus OM10. It looks sweet and feels good to hold. Its got a 50mm 1.8 zuiko on it and when i get some film, im going to go and have a play with it.

what's it like as a camera, strengths, weaknesses, ideal film companions etc...

cheers,
Chris
 
They are nice cameras and certainly worth using. Sadly, with the low prices of higher-end cameras, the OM10 is probably not a good buy.

The Zuiko OM lenses are good and not that expensive -- though, depending which system you have, you might be able to get an SLR that'll take your digital lenses.

You'll probably want the manual adapter -- does it have a large wheel plugged into the front? They're about £10 to buy from a dealer.
 
The OM10 is a very nice camera which is aperture priority and manual (if you have the optional manual adaptor plugged in), and the 50mm Zuiko is a fine lens as are all their lenses. There are plenty available second-hand.

With regards to films, well for colour negative I would go for Kodak Ektar 100. But for black & white, I'd definitely recommend Ilford FP4+ (ISO 125) and HP5+ (ISO 400).
 
The Zuiko 50mm is a really nice lens, remember with film the lens and the film are direcctly influencing the final result so there's no need to be concerned with how good the sensor is! OM10's were the more budget range to bigger brothers like the OM1 - 4 and will just have lesser features but the resulting images would be the same. Probably one of the bonuses you will notice is the bigger , brighter viewfinder...a twenty five year old camera has better than most modern DSLR's!
 
clud17 said:
Thanks guys, i guess the proof is in the pudding so ill get out there and see what i can do with it. It does have the manual adaptor on it which gives me more control.
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Yes, you will need the manual adaptor for full control. I used to own 2 OM1n's and an OM2 with the Zuiko 28mm F3.5, 35mm F2.8, 50mm F1.8 and 75-150mm F4 as they all shared 49mm filters. The first three were excellent lenses, pin sharp, but I was never happy with the zoom.
 
steveb said:
Yes, you will need the manual adaptor for full control. I used to own 2 OM1n's and an OM2 with the Zuiko 28mm F3.5, 35mm F2.8, 50mm F1.8 and 75-150mm F4 as they all shared 49mm filters. The first three were excellent lenses, pin sharp, but I was never happy with the zoom.
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Perhaps even in those days there were IQ variations between lens samples! I was very happy indeed with the IQ of my 75-150, as I was with the Zuiko 35-105. But my son had one of the latter too, and I didn't think his was quite as good as mine.

I still have quite a collection of Zuiko lenses and most were excellent. The only ones that disappointed were the 135mm F2.8 (lateral colour) and the 35mm F2 (soft).

johngie
 
I went off the OM10 (and Olympus) the first time I used it for backup on holiday..I lost 8 excellent shots before I realised the slider under "auto, b, manual adapter dial" had moved, could be because my nail caught it why cocking the shutter, anyway it had moved towards "B" so the camera was working with a very slow shutter speed.
I thought if Olympus can make design faults like this what about their expensive cameras. These design faults were rectified for the OM20
 
excalibur2 said:
I thought if Olympus can make design faults like this what about their expensive cameras. These design faults were rectified for the OM20
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You made a mistake handling the camera the 1st time you used it and went off it straight away???:lol: Maybe you have big thumbs!:)
I've had an OM10 for 20 years now and never done that. It's not a design fault.

The OM10 is a cracking little camera, the lenses are excellent as has been said - and if you get it serviced and calibrated etc (it may have been in storage a while) you'll have a nice little bit of kit.
Enjoy it.;)
 
****You made a mistake handling the camera the 1st time you used it and went off it straight away??? Maybe you have big thumbs!
I've had an OM10 for 20 years now and never done that. It's not a design fault.***

Well you know there is an old saying in engineering:- "If things can go wrong, they will go wrong"
 
I sold loads of OM10s years back they were quite reliable the odd one was prone to electro mechanical problems but we rarely got many back under warranty. If you've got it for free then may as well use it. :)

I remember selling an OM 1000mm f8 or f11 lens it looked like a bazooka :lol: and also a grey 300mm f2.8 lens
 
Not that it sees any use but I (well, it's the wife's, really) have one, Feels way too small for my hands but I still enjoy fiddling with it. I particularly like the bright VF and the split screen and multiprism focus assistance. Chances are that it'll need a new battery and the light seals may be a bit tired. Easiest way to tell is to put a 24 exposure colour print film through it and see the results. The lenses can be a bit prone to fungus if they've been stored for a long time but this only affects value, not useability (although REALLY bad cases will cause some softness and lack of contrast).

Ideal film companions? Well, I always liked FP-4 for slow stuff and Tri-X for faster stuff and pushing. Moved on to XP-1 when that arrived on the market but missed the graininess of pushed "normal" B&W. In my more recent past, I've tended to use Fuji for colour slides and Kodak Gold Ultra (IIRC) for neg.
 
The Olynpus OM10 , brought an electronic SLR to the masses £89 with a 1.8 Zuiko lens setting the compatition ( pentax ME super , Cosina and Yashica) reeling.

Add the manual adaptor 15 quid and it was unbeatable.

However it became apparent that the there were some batch variations, know faults include:-

The shutter mechanism going faulty ( down to the magnets that triggerd the mecanism looseing power, and draining batteries.

The meter being biased to the left hand side of the screen ( go figure)

Oh yes and small insects crawling around, somthing to to with the lubricant.

On the positve side , sharp lens realy good construction, and batteresi that are still availabel ms76h x2 if my memory serves me :thumbs:
 
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