Light weight and small, great lenses, and you can pick one of these cameras up for a good price. I have the OM-1n model. I was thinking about trading it in for a autofocus camera but when I look at the pictures I take, i ask myself my would I do that. When I do get an autofocus camera, I will still keep this. Oh did I mention that it works without batteries? I have a gossen pilot meter that I use along with this.

Not made anymore. The hot shoe is weak.

This is a great camera. These can be picked up on ebay for a good price. The Zuiko lenses are awesome. For all the people out there that want to learn photography, you can't go wrong with one of these....better than a Pentax K1000.

Customer Service

Never needed

Similar Products Used:

None...This is my first real camera

-small size
-price
-Zuiko lenses
-all manual operation

-flash synch at 60
-mercury 1.35 volt batteries. Not a big problem as CRIS makes a $29.95 adapter for the 1.5 volt silver batteries.

I love this little camera. With the 24mm f.28, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f.28 Zuiko lenses this is the perfect travel combo. I really enjoy using an all manual camera. Most of the time my F90x stays at home unless I absolutely need auto-focus. I was going to get an FM2n but the Zuiko lenses are so much cheaper to purchase used than are Nikon that I've built up an Olympus system at considerably less cost and the results would be just as good. My brother has used his OM-1 since new in 1975 and it still works perfectly.

Customer Service

not necessary yet

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F4, Nikon F90x, Olympus OM-10

Zuiko Lenses
Small, well built.
Light
All mechanic

uses mercury battery
hot shoe fragile
1/60 sync speed

The Nikon FM-2 body is better, but the OM-1 is doubtless the best all mechanic body for the price

Customer Service

never

Similar Products Used:

several other slrs

light, small, strong.
all mechanical and all manual.
great zuiko lenses.
mirror lock up!!!

old,old,old. it is way out of date. has a clumsy design that was the standard for those days, but nowdays...well, it's just old.

forget all about the other full manual and mechanical cameras. the om-1 is the best learning tool that you can think of.
it compells the photographer to understand what is he doing and how his actions will impact the final result.
they come by the nubers in the 2nd hand market, and they come cheap. ultra cheap.

an om-1 can be a great gift for a begginer.

Similar Products Used:

om-10

Small size
Quality construction
Like that rabbit...it keeps going and going...

Batteries getting difficult to find but not impossible.
Small size

This camera was my 2nd SLR but the first one I ever had to buy myself. It didn't take long to appreciate the strength of the Olympus system. I remember spending hours looking at the system catalog like it was a Toy catalog at Christmas. The greatest testimonial I can give it is that I am still using it. I have a 75-150 Zuiko zoom and a 28mm wide angle. Nowadays it just shoots Infrared since neither of my Canon cameras can do it (too much technology). The size of the camera is a love/hate relationship. If you have big hands you may have problems coming to terms with holding the camera. If you can put a Motor drive on your body, do so for the sake of the grip. Mine is not the MD version so I am stuck. To sum up and paraphrase, "You can have my OM-1 when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Olympus OM-10
Olympus 0M-2
Canon EOS Rebel G
Canon EOS Elan 7

Small, quiet excellent lenses
the small size and weight of the lenses and camera

for me, none

I dither between the Leica M6 with 35mmf2.8, 50mmf2, 90mmf2.8 and 135mmf4 and the OM-1 with 35mmf2.8, 50mmf1.8 and 75-150mmf4 Zoom. I find the OM-1 to be almost as quiet, easier focusing, easier viewing when using long lenses and it isn't a temptation for thieves. I see no difference in results, both Leica and Zuiko lenses are the very tops. I usually, when traveling, take the OM-1 with the 50mm and 2X extender and can do a good 90% of what I want to shoot. I am now on my second OM-1 body as the first one, bought in the 60's in Japan, grew moss in the viewfinder. The OM-1 is absolutely my favorite camera. I did a review on the Minolta X-700 and it and the Minolta MD lenses are right up there, but the OM-1 is lighter and a great deal quieter. I don't like a loud mirror slap. I prefer manual, all metal, well engineered cameras and doubt that I will, with the great equipment I have, fall for the plastic plus AF hype. Also, a basic, non-zoom lens, so hard to find at an affordable price, are just superior to the zooms, now so popular.

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

Minolta X-700
Asashi Pentax SM

Small, light, great lenens, easy to use, 5fps drive, better shutter speed dialb

Hotshoe can break, errm?

Just about to get it overhauled, so it keeps going for another 20 odd years!

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

om2, om40, om 10, pentax spotmatic/p30, prakticas

Great layout. Shutter on ring IS Olympus (sorry Cosina)--Simple, straightforward, solid. Quiet and durable.
interchangeable focusing screens (helps my myopic eyes)

1.35v Hg batteries (most easily fixed with a converter), hot shoe cracks easily

A great body - affordable used (as prices slowly rise). IMO, complaining that a manual camera lacks autofocus is like buying a porsche and looking for an automatic transmission... inherent nature of the object... This camera makes me think before I press the button. The results are just better this way.

Customer Service

None needed (thus far).Must find qualified technicians as Olympus has retracted its support for the OM line.

Similar Products Used:

OM-10, Pentax K-1000

None

None

A month ago I bought one of these marvels at a local camera shop for less than 80 USD. I was feeling sho ashamed for having sold my beautiful OM2 4 years ago to buy an auto-everything camera, that as soon as I saw it I got in the shop and got it. It is an early (non-MD) model, but it was in such a excellent conditin that I couldnt say no. And the price was so ridiculous...

Last weekend I was in a friend`s wedding in France and i took the OM1 with me to take pictures. It was me and 6-7 more people with cameras, most of them with EOSes and point-and-shoots. Some of them had never seen this camera before. In fact one person was really surprised that there are cameras that can work without batteries (!!!). The wedding was in the afternoon but the party went on untill 5 o clock in the morning. Ready to hear what happened? After 3-4 hours the only camera still working was the OM1. One EOS had a flash failure, a digital and a couple of Point-and-shoots run out of batteries and the rest of them just couldnt focus in the darkness during the wedding party. When the couple cut the cake with the lights off, only one camera could take pictures, the OM 1. With a 28mm lens mounted set at f-11 to take care of the focus and a METZ 45CL4 flash everybody else was left to watch.
One of the guests at the wedding came up to me and said he was seriously thinking of learning photography. Guess what camera he had? a auto-everything Minolta with a 28-105 superzoom....

What I mean to say with all the above is the following: You are serious about photography as an art, as a true passion? forget the plastic super-cameras, go out there and buy a manual, mechanical camera. Forget the lens tests and other marketing tricks, load slide film and take tons of pictures. You will be amazed by how much the thinking process related to the manual cameras affects the quality of pictures.

To go back to the OM1: It is simply beautiful. Noone ha smade such a small, beautiful and at the same time dependable camera. Once you get it in your hands and use it for a while, everything else will seem so bulky and ugly that you will never want to go back.

Similar Products Used:

None

I echo many of the observations of others. Light weight, compact, discreet looking for candid shoots, quiet shutter - almost noiseless with mirror locked up. Excellent optics. Excellent bright viewfinder. Manual operation makes you think, can be operated without a battery, light and well balanced.

Weak hot shoe. Some weird ergonomics. The f1.4 prime lens is softer than f1.8.

Excellent, versatile manual camera. Can easily use it for extreme close-ups, astrophotography and most anything in between. Dents attest to its durability. People regularly compliment the better quality of my photos over their p&s pics.
Highly recommended for anyone willing to work with a manual camera.

Customer Service

Had mirror and film transport jam in mid 80's. Took about 8 months and $$ to get repaired by Canadian distributor.

Similar Products Used:

Brother's Nikon xx and Canon xx SLR's. They felt large and unwieldly (huge SUV vs sports car!)