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[OM] OM2000 -- impressions

Subject: [OM] OM2000 -- impressions
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 14:26:12 -0500
Oly Shooters,

I've just recently purchased an OM2000 and thought I would share my
impressions. I've been reading on-list "reviews" of this camera since it
first came out. Others' experience with it and willingness to discuss good
points and shortfalls have given me confidence to go ahead and purchase
with a good expectation of what I would be getting. Thanks as always for
the collective wisdom within this group.

The OM2000 has been described in such a way that I was expecting it to be
somewhat modeled after the Nikon FM2.  The winder lever/meter-shutter
activator is similar to Nikon's FM, FE, FG series, and so forth.  Cocked
about 1/3 of the way the winder sticks out at about a 30-45 degree angle
from the camera back.  This allows one to depress the shutter partway and
activate the meter and then shoot the picture.  Pushed home, the winder
lever locks both meter and shutter.

I never really noticed a problem with Nikons, but the OM2000 is smaller so
that this winder lever configuration makes the camera really problematic
for left-eyed shooters, and if you're one of those, I'd just say forget
this camera.  But even for right-eyed shooters, I find the winder lever a
nuisance for verticals because the lever bumps the forehead.  Even if one
likes the design, with the OM2000 it is not very well done.  The lever has
no catch to hold it in the "on" position, so my forehead can easily push
the lever in far enough to lock the shutter and turn the meter off.  My
workaround is to use an Eyecup 1.

That's really the bad news, and it's been said before. I had figured it
wouldn't really affect me because I'm right-eyed, but it does.  Too bad.

I like the way the meter works only on demand when pressing the shutter
button down part way to take a reading.  The meter itself seems very
precise.  The switch to spot meter has a cheap feel to it, but I'm glad
they included it and it seems to work fine, although moving back and forth
between spot and averaging modes doesn't seem quite as fluid as with the
OM-2S.  Also, only a small red dot in the meter display tells you that you
are in spot mode. I worried at first about being in one mode and thinking I
was in the other, but it hasn't turned out to be a big problem.

My test slides on Provia seemed right on.  The spot meter works well.  I
like the way one can use the spot and averaging modes to determine the best
exposure, set the speed and aperture, and then shoot.  It's a different way
of using the meter from the OM-2S, where the auto setting will allow the
speed to float around as light levels vary.  I took some pictures of my son
riding his bike on our driveway in mixed light -- a situation where one
wants to figure the right exposure and just stick with it.  The OM2000 is
perfect for this.

The shutter feels and sounds OK to me, although it is certainly different
from the OM-2S.  This is just a meaningless, subjective impression.

The scale of the camera is just slightly larger than an OM-1 but it is much
lighter.  This is probably good and bad.  It seems strong enough for normal
use but perhaps not for much abuse. 

I wish they'd made the viewfinder a trifle brighter. I've gotten used to
those 2-series screens!

The fact that the timer does mirror lockup and aperture pre-fire and can be
set to fire in several seconds (rather than the 10-12 seconds of
OM-2S/4[T]) gives this camera perhaps the most useful mirror lockup
capabilities of all the OM's. Having said that, the mechanism itself is
much less sophisticated than the timer on an OM-2S, being more like a
spring-loaded mechanical governor.  Setting it for short firing times is
somewhat approximate.  That's not a criticism.  I don't think the timer was
created with short MLU-type exposures in mind. It's similar to and no worse
than the timer on a Nikon FM2/FE2.  I'd love to see an optional 2-second
delay setting on the timer of the OM-6, something that is clearly meant to
be the "moral equivalent" of true mirror lockup.

The shutter speed dial is distinctly un-OM, as has been often stated. It
doesn't bother me particularly, but I'm really indifferent as to where the
speed adjustments are made. (OM heresy, sorry!) "Exposure compensation" is
made with the aperture ring, which is normal for an all-manual camera.  (I
guess we call 'em "brackets," eh?)

The 1/2000 speed, 1/125 flash sync speed, and double exposure tab are all
nice features which I basically don't need very often.

I think of the OM2000 as a nice, cheap little camera that can take my
OM-mount lenses.  I'm glad to have it and I like using it with the
exception of the problem with the winder lever.

Joel Wilcox
Iowa City, Iowa USA

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