Sebastien Roy wrote:
[snip]
>I looked a little deeper into the "cloning" origins of the OM2000
>and its two new zooms. Some might be surprised to see that the
>OM2000 is one out of a family of seven (!) clones.
>I have summerized this (with pictures) on the web page
>
>http://www.neci.nj.nec.com/homepages/sebastien/album/clone2000.html
Hmm..., a very good effort, but IMHO not entirely correct. The
prototype for this (somewhat dysfunctional :-)) family is indeed
Cosina's CT-1 Super body. However, several comments are in order:
(a) The Canon T60 was indeed made by Cosina, but clearly had an
electronic shutter AND an electronic self-timer, so it's not
really "family".
(b) The Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 should also be included, although
both Ricoh's and Yashica's earlier models -- the KR-5 and FX-3,
respectively, are much closer to their current models than the
OM-1 is to the OM-2000, so in principle, both these companies
could be making their own cameras.
(c) The FM-10 and OM-2000 are a notch above the rest, mainly due to
Nikon's contribution of the multiple exposure mechanism as well
as Oly's spot meter.
(d) There are some differences in light metering among the family
members. Some use CdS (Cadmium Sulfide) cells, others use SPD's
(Silicon photo diodes). Number of cells varies too (1 or 2).
In short, this is definitely more complicated than Cosina producing
a single camera and slapping different name plates on them. I suspect
that there is more commonality among the zooms.
One must feel quite a bit of respect for Cosina. As manufacturers go,
they must be tops. Recently, I had a chance to examine a couple of
Cosina's earlier models, sold in the US as Vivitar 450/SLD and Vivitar
XC-2 -- both screw-mount M42. Both were very well-made, feature-laden,
and very respectable indeed. Hmm, maybe Cosina-fication is not such a
bad thing after all... (just kidding, folks :-). Pls, pls: no hate mail)
Cheers,
/Gary Schloss.
Studio City, CA
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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