Frank -- Gee, I really like my OM-4 :-) Would you be interested in
selling yours?
Craig
Frank Ernens wrote:
> "Be careful what you wish for; it might come true."
>
> I have been looking for another OM body for some months now.
> Yesterday I snared an OM-4 in good condition, with a new
> OM4-Ti circuit installed, for a very good price. Lucky me!
>
> Or not so lucky. After just a few hours with this body I
> have come to loathe it. The problem is the ergonomics
> (or "handling", as photo types call it.) Although it seems
> OK when you first pick it up, a collection of small things
> add up to a camera which is very unpleasant to use.
>
> Here they are:
>
> 1. You can't see the shutter speed looking down at the
> camera, because the prism housing obscures it. Since the
> aperture is not shown in the viewfinder, you can never see
> shutter speed and aperture together. This is especially
> bad when the camera is mounted on a tripod for macro work.
>
> 2. In manual mode, an LCD number line is shown in the
> viewfinder, but it is *backwards* from mathematical convention.
> + is to the left, and - to the right! Since I am in the
> minority of people who hold a camera vertically with the
> shutter release at the bottom, it's OK in vertical format.
> On the OM-1 and OM-2N, this scale is at the left of the
> viewfinder with + to the top, and therefore correct for
> me in either format.
>
> 3. The exposure compensation dial is likewise backwards
> from expected, with + proceeding anticlockwise. Even worse,
> the *scale* rotates around the *dial*. When setting the
> film speed, you have to perform a mental triple-negative.
>
> 4. An LCD bar graph is much harder to use than an
> analogue swing needle. There have been scientific studies
> done in the avionics industry to prove this. If the
> reading is between two values on the LCD scale, the last
> block blinks in a very distracting way. The LCD is just
> a cost-saving by the manufacturer - on what was supposed
> to be the top of the range model.
>
> 4. There is no spot metering manual mode. You have to
> start in centre-weighted manual mode and push the "spot"
> button. Then you centre the bar graph (drawn, per (2),
> backwards, from right to left). Meanwhile, a second
> moving diamond - the next spot reading, which the
> camera is not using - is blinking away, distracting you.
> There has to be a SPOT button in order for multi-spot
> to work, but I'm only interested in a single spot reading.
> In this respect the OM2000 and OM-2SP are both much
> better cameras.
>
> 5. The camera gets sick of you after 120 seconds and
> unilaterally throws away all your work. If you are using
> the spot meter manually, it also changes the mode back
> to centre-weighted, with very little in the viewfinder
> to warn you. There should be a three-way switch
> OFF-CENTRE-SPOT and another one MANUAL-AUTO. The second
> would be left in one position by many people.
>
> 6. You have to read the instruction book from cover to
> cover to figure out how to stop the camera from beeping.
> Beeps are *always* evidence of poor interface design. When
> you do switch it off, you find out why it was there: the
> viewfinder doesn't indicate how many spot measurements have
> the one value.
>
> 7. The highlight and shadow buttons are pointless features,
> since there's already a compensation dial. I don't happen
> to agree with 2 2/3 stops for shadow with the film I use,
> but that's a moot point, since I can't actually push the
> button with my fat finger. I have already suggested in (4)
> that the SPOT button is a bad idea too.
>
> 8. The TTL socket is exactly where I like to rest a finger.
> When a cord is attached to it, it tends to drift into the
> field of view for macro work.
>
> 9. The MEMO mode looks deadly. If you should accidentally
> bump this switch, *every* exposure from then on will be wrong.
> I am so afraid of doing this I have taken to pressing CLEAR
> (which cancels MEMO) every time I pick up the camera and
> between every frame. More mental overhead.
>
> 10. The instruction manual actually says to remove the
> batteries between sessions. They have to be joking.
>
> 11. I spent quite a while centreing the dioptric adjustment,
> even though I wear contacts and don't need it. This knob
> doesn't lock securely enough to prevent it being moved
> in use. Even after this, the viewfinder is not as clear
> as that of the OM-1 and OM-2N, although mercifully smaller.
>
> There may be more problems. (1) and (2) are the killers,
> and (4) is right up there. Fortunately the shop that sold
> this camera has a return policy.
>
> I know now that it wasn't lack of marketing or keen pricing
> which lost Olympus the SLR market. They no longer *have* a
> product worth marketing. I would not buy this camera new at
> any price.
>
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