I owned an original Canon F1 with a motor drive. That has been my personal
comparison basis for judging "toughness." That thing was built like a tank
and was very heavy. I never weighed it but would guess about five pounds.
The motor drive held ten AA batteries by itself. I always wished for a good
quality, light-weight, and quiet SLR when I was climbing and backpacking so
was excited when Olympus came out with the OM-1. It has been Olympus for me
since the mid 1970s. I have never had any failure of an Olympus camera. I've
always worried about the complexity of the OM-4 series so carry OM-1 and
OM-2 bodies when out in the boonies. I can see why a pro who is working all
over the world would not choose Olympus now. The corporate support is just
not there and the dealer network appears to have mostly collapsed. Some of
the competition has developed new things like the image-stabilization lenses
that are very good although expensive. I hear stories of frequent failures
of the "modern" Canon and Nikon cameras but have little personal knowledge
of statistical data. The OM system works for me and I plan to stay with it.
/jnm
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of andrew fildes
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 9:46 PM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [OM] Galen Rowell on Olympus
>Sponsorships can cause biased opinions. The OM-1 is probably much tougher
>than the OM-4 series and all the modern Nikon and Canon bodies. /jnm
>
Not really fair - I handle OM-1 contemporaries frequently (so called
'student' cameras) such as Nikkormats, Canon FT's, Minolta SRT's and
they're all seriously solid and could probably pulverise an OM. The Leica
M3 I once owned was as close to a solid lump of metal as anything I've
handled and could probably destroy an M6. So? Does any of this indicate
reliability? If so, then Russian cameras will live forever and perform
flawlessly. :)
AndrewF
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|