David,
>From my own experience on a budget, buy the optically best lenses you can
afford and buy a body that has features you consider essential. Appearance
can give you some judgement about probable optical condition, but there are
some cosmetics that don't affect optical condition. I would go for one of
the used "single digit" bodies in excellent working condition. If you pay
a fair price for it and take care of it, it will retain its value better
than an OM-2000 body. The least costly with a spot meter is the OM-2S. If
you really need to keep to a tight budget, don't discount finding an OM-PC
(aka OM-40 outside the US). These were the zenith of what started with the
"consumer" OM-10 and are a fine body in their own right.
Sometimes this is a tradeoff decision in getting the most "bang" for the
"buck." Supposedly the 50/1.4 MC's with S/N > 1,000,000 are the best
formulation of the 50/1.4's. The 50/1.2 is IMO the best "standard" OM
lens, edging out the last 50/1.4 formulation by a nose, but it will also be
2X~3X the price of a 50/1.4 MC used. I have a 50/1.2 more by accident than
design. I was looking for a good used 50/1.4 MC and found it at a
reasonable. Since used ones in LN- condition don't appear very often I
grabbed it and waited a bit longer to save money up again to buy the other
lens I was looking for.
Whether a lens is MC or single-coated is only one aspect of its optical
characteristics. Compared to an uncoated lens, a single coating gets you
about 900f the improvement in light transmission compared to what an MC
lens has. In other words, there is some gain to having MC, but its
importance is overplayed. Within some of the OM lens lineup, the MC
versions came later and along with it were other formulation tweaks that
made the lens better, not the MC alone. One example is the last
formulation of the 50/1.4 MC mentioned above.
There are several excellent FAQ's written by Lee Hawkins and Michael
Covington about the bodies and lenses, including what to look for when
buying them used, and some links to other OM sites on Lee Hawkins' site:
http://brashear.phys.appstate.edu/lhawkins/photo/photo.shtml
A wealth of detailed information about specific bodies, lenses and
accessories, past and present, is in the "Unofficial OM Sales Information
File" maintained by Hans Van Veluwen:
http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/veluwen/om-sif.htm
Lens testing of Zuiko and selected non-OEM lenses has been done by Gary
Reese and his results are here:
http://members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm
For judging general pricing of used lenses, you can use Skip Williams' eBay
pricing history:
http://www.skipwilliams.com/olympus/zuiko_ebay_history.htm
BTW, you will also notice on these sites there is an Olympus OM web ring.
There is additional information on other sites in the ring.
-- John
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