My story is a familiar tale, it seems. I grew up being the model for my
father's hobby. More times than I care to remember I sat under hot flood
lights as he worked to get just the right image for our Christmas card. I
also learned to wear red shirts and coats for his Kodachrome 25 photos on
our vacation trips across the US.
I had used my dad's Twin Lens Yashikamat for the High School newspaper. I
was fortunate to go to school on a university campus so I had access to
lots of photo workshops and nine different dark rooms on campus while still
just a Junior and Senior in HS. I decided I needed a camera that was more
modern and purchased a used Konika, complete with several lenses and a
bellows setup. But it was always very difficult to meter correctly when
using the bellows as the meter was above the prism and not TTL.
All the adults I rubbed shoulders with at the photo workshops used Hasseys
or Nikons, with a few Minaltas thrown in. I always wanted a Nikon with the
gadgets like the interchangeable finders and the multiple exposure
capability. But I was also an avid National Geographic reader, and I
noticed over the next few years that their photographers were changing over
to a lighter system, the same system that many news photographers were
using near the end of the Vietnam "war".
By about 1975 I figured that if it was strong enough for them, it would
certainly work for me. I got my mother to co-sign a note at the bank for
my first credit purchase - a foreshadowing of things to come! and purchased
an OM 1 and 50/1.4 lens from NY. I also got a Vivitar T mount 135/2.5 and
a no-name 28/2.5. For the next two years I was a photographer for the
university yearbook staff and became the photographer for a summer
camp. The second summer at camp I purchased an OM 1 MD to supplement the
first body and married the camp director's daughter. I still have both of
that year's investments in my life 21 years later. Both the OM 1 and I
have gotten soft and spongy in the intervening years. But the camera is
still taking good pictures.
Eight years later, after the birth of my second child, I sold the OM 1 for
$100 to KEH, a new company I heard about after moving to Tennessee. I used
to plan visits to see my sister in Georgia just so I could go visit the
store. From KEH I got an OM 4, BG2 and the same year a T32 new from
NY. Later that OM 4 developed an overactive viewfinder, and was kidnapped
from off my front porch when UPS returned it from repair. I got my
champagne OM 4T in the mail from the repair center at no charge except for
the CLA. At that time I was really not knowledgeable about the camera or
what a special piece of work it is, but I did enjoy using it.
Until I joined this list about a year and a half ago I was content to add
equipment only when I could make the money to pay for it from my
hobby. Now, like everyone else who will admit it, I have become a
Zuikoholic and know more about the OM system and where to look for
equipment that any sane individual should. <g> I have only played golf
twice since joining this list, where I used to work at a golf club in my
spare time and play two to three times a week.
Gregg
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