The journey to Olympus !!

[blackfox]

Thought this might make an interesting thread …. How we all got started .. with MFT. I know some have been there all along .but I digress

I have been a photographer on and off most of my adult life going through various genres of the hobby but never serious enough to call it my main hobby . Over the years I dabbled in 35mm and 2&quarter with various bodies and lens combos and brands .. did my own developing and printing in home darkrooms in BW and colour .
It was put on a back burner in the mid 70’s due to personal reasons but I still took holiday and family snaps ..
come the 90’s and my youngest lad took a interest in computers and the fact that you could buy digital cameras and see the results on a computer , I was interested and as I also had a new fangled windows machine and guidance from my lad I bought one , can’t even remember what it was called but it had a eyepiece to look through and no rear screen but it took reasonable photos albeit low res , move on a few years and a few cameras I had gone in leaps and bounds through 2mp 3mp and a unheard of 5 mp canon bodies all of them compacts ,, .. I then bought a Sony828 8mp camera the one with the big f2.8 lens and swivelling all in one body … got some good results but then canon launched there first dslr . I approached this carefully as it was a big investment at the time but put my foot in the water with a 400D hooked then went through a series of canon bodies and getting drawn into bird photography along the way by my lad and friends all with the same interests , changed to Mac computers as well results got ever better , tried Nikon as my lad had gone that way and sold canon gear and went to Nikon . A couple of brand new bodies that failed on me within three months led me to switch back to canon again but this time I went with 1 series bodies and go5 used to shooting at 10fps with decent AF ..
move on to six + years ago and heart failure while on a birding holiday to bempton nearly ended it all , but a friend came a visited me while I was stuck at home to show me his Sony A9 ,we went out the front onto the green and he let me try it wow lightweight and a very fast fps hooked me , once recovered I realised that lugging my FF gear around wasn’t viable nor was Sony gear due to costs , popped into a local camera shop and tried a Olympus omd1-mkii . The journey started
Six years later i have owned a myriad of Olympus bodies and lenses plus extras my current setup being a OM1 and 300mm f4 plus t.c’s plus a drawer full of lenses that seldom get used .. but who knows what the next chapter is ??

that’s a condensed story of my journey …what# yours

[MK1]

Started with an Olympus trip 35 at age 11, won a competition in the local paper and it was taken on the trip 35 so I was hooked. I then used that camera every day and started to learn about developing my own prints.

Then film cameras I went to Minolta XGM loved this camera too and used it for many years, when my dear old grandfather passed away he left me some money with an instruction to buy camera stuff. So then I got a Pentax autofocus film camera and it's still in the loft in sealed box.
Digital started with a 2.7m Minolta dimage camera a bridge type mainly for family shots

My first really decent camera was a Canon 5D and a few L mount lenses took thousands of images with it on a photography forum a wedding photographer saw my portfolio and asked me to help him as a second shooter. This was my start at wedding photography through all professional Canon equipment I did around 375 weddings and I had a decent Google ranking position until I started to get pain badly and gave up wedding sadly at my prime.

Went Fujifilm for the size and had a few different types of camera with them Xpro1 Xt1 Xpro2 then downsized to the X100 series loved these cameras but eventually grew slightly disillusioned with photography and bought a Samsung S22 ultra brilliant photos from it!

Micro 4 thirds started with a Panasonic g9 and a few lenses struggled with health and found it a bit fiddly to use got the EM1iii a year or so ago and loved the system images and colours and wondered why I hadn't tried it before!

Just recently got a lovely EM1-X better grip for my hands as my fingers don't have much dexterity. I prefer the large layout of buttons etc, happy with macro set up and now trying out the 100-400 typing this with gloves on here and my arms are burning so I may not buy one.

Sorry it's a long story!

[Harold Gough]

I started 35mm with a Kowa E, with a fixed lens later moving to a Canon A1. Then Olympus came out with TTL OTF flash and I was hooked. I started with the OM2n and ended up wih two OM4s. I had mostly Tamron Adaptall -2 SP lenses and lots of T-series flash and cables. I also had the full X-pan kit.

My first digital was the EP-2. It took excellent images but lacked a viewfinder. I got the plugin one for the hot shoe but that meant I couldn't use flash.

When the EM-1 came out that gave me all I wanted. My first one eventually needed a new main board but it was cheaper to by a used one, I bought two. I have never seen the point in upgrading.

I bought a used Sony Alpha A7r and moved to the AS7r3 with its new (non-shake) shutter and improved IS.

My most recent purchase is a Nikon D3, the only way of getting my Nikon T/S lenses to function.

The EM-1 is still my go-to body, mostly with the Oly 4/3 50mm f2 macro and TC, as required, or the Laowa 25mm x2.5 to x5 macro.

The majority of my lenses are legacy manual focus with some of the latest Laowa manual ones.

I have never sold any of the above except the Kowa.

Harold

[linus1884]

It started off with 110 film point and shoots, and then a friend kindly gave me one of their old film bodies, a Praktica MTL3, it had seen better days but worked just fine and allowed me to learn the basics.

I then picked up an Olympus mju mini for a holiday, a great little pocket point and shoot, but i wanted something with more manual controls, a friend suggested the Nikon D40... it was a smaller DSLR body but holding it, just didnt feel right in my hands.

A few years later, watching tv an advert caught my eye it was a chap backpacking/traveling and he had a mirrorless camera, it was a Panasonic GF, and so began many hours searching reading reviews, comparing the pros and cons Panasonic vs Olympus, and eventuallly finding this site some 12 years ago!

I finally decided to take the plunge with an Olympus E-PL3, I liked the Olympus E-PL3 size and tilting screen, it was perfect, till the dreaded GAS struck!! Seeing a mint Olympus E-M5 with low shutter count, it was too late, "Click - Purchased!" and the rest is history!

[Geo]

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic - with pop up flash!! - when I was 11. My first SLR was a Praktica Super TL. A neighbour then gave me an old enlarger and off I went. Purchased a 2nd Super TL so I could shoot B&W and transparencies. From that to Pentax SP 500. At college I bought a Bronica S2a 6x6cm then to a Nikkormat which I still have, That camera with a 35mm Nikkor ascended many Munros summer and winter over the years. I was also using Vivitar lenses 400mm - still have my first ever B&W bird pic -and a 70-210 series one which was amazingly sharp, made a 6ft x 4ft print from a 35mm tranny using this lens. I progressed to Nikon F3's and my first AF was the Nikon F501. From there many Nikons then Mamiya RB67 which was a brilliant piece of kit. When working with Lancs CC I used 5 x4 for architectural work and Mamiya C220.

Numerous Nikons and lenses followed then moved to Sony A1 in 2021 as Nikon were too slow rolling out mirrorless lenses, then to current OM plus a variety of lenses and also a Nikon Z8.

I still have a number of my older cameras in my 'mini museum display' which I am quite proud of!. Top shelf is my 400mm Vivitar and 500mm mirror Nikkor, 3rd shelf is my Instamatic and Vivitar 70-210 lens, 4th shelf Mamiya and Bronica. Those were the days, hand held Weston light meter and manual focus!!



My first bird pic Nikkormat and Vivitar 400mm. Approx 1971


Made a 6ft x 4ft print from 35mm tranny for PLM. The lab first made a 10x8 tranny then printed from that. Could identify the pilot in the print!

[MJ224]

That is a collection to be proud of. And some OK results from them...

[MJ224]

I vaguely remember using a Box camera in my early days, but my Dad bought me a Zenith SLR in the 60's. He was a Pentax user, so I followed him with various film, and digital cameras.

My first Olympus, was an EPL 1. Carmarthen Cameras said it is not a brilliant camera, but I wanted a small digital to fit onto the 8" Astro telescope.

From there, I went up the Olympus scale, EPL5, EM10, EM5, EM1 mks 1, 2 and 3, then Om1 1 then 2...

We shall see what the next OMD offering is, and may or may not bite...

[Gerry]

If I remember correctly the first camera that I got from my father was a Kodak box Brownie, this was followed years later by an Instamatic. I later purchased a Praktika L, followed by an L2. Next on the list was a Minolta that got sold in order to buy an OM-1 in around 1973/74. This was replaced by an OM-1n that I still have, along with an OM-2n, ON-4 and the amazing XA. By the late 1980s I was doing quite a lot of film work in my job with the US Army and we were first using 16mm cameras before moving on to U-Matic, low and high band video.

All the time I was still using my OM gear privately, with the OM-1n and the XA getting the most mileage. My first step in the digital world was with an Olympus CAMEDIA, can't remember the exact model but I do know that it ate batteries at a terrible rate and that it had an Olympus brand memory card that couldn't be read without the aid of a USB adapter. Some time around 2004 I got a Canon Quick Shot as a present from a friend and this could take images at a mind blowing 8K and this one is also still in my possession. It wasn't until 2022 that I broke out and got my present E-M1iii that I am more than happy with.

Almost 50 years with Olympus/OMDS and still love their products.

[MargaretR]

I started my serious photographic life with an Olympus OM-10 film camera. Time moved on, I moved on, to Minolta, which became Sony. Used that happily for years. Then got to the stage about 2014 or so, where I was going on a landscape trip to the southwest USA, and couldn't fit all the Sony gear I wanted to take into one under-the-seat camera bag. It wasn't a massive amount of kit, couple of bodies, maybe 4 or 5 lenses and the usual accessories, filters & whatnot, but it was bulky. And heavy. I happened to be at The Photography Show before I went, and spotted this intensely cute little mirrorless thing on the Olympus stand, think it was an original EM-1. I picked it up, instantly fell in love , went home and sold all my Sony kit, bought the Oly and 4 lenses for my trip, and still had room to spare in the bag! I've never looked back.

[blackfox]

just had a memory jogger here when I lived in reading many years ago 50+ or more ,someone owed me some money around £100 and didn't have any ,I was offered a big radio controlled bi-plane as payment for the debt which I grudgingly took , never had a interest in planes at all anyway... talking to another of my customers that I know did ,he offered me a rollieflex TLR for it and I thought why not I was using a mamiya c330 at the time anyway .. done the deal tried it out and it had a pink tinge to the lenses which I later found out to be a rare lens ,as I was into colour shooting at that time I decided to sell it on , took it into the camera shop in reading town centre in the butts I think , and was astounded when he offered me £1100 quid for it. probably equal to 7 or 8 k these days ,bit his arm off , . funny how these posts jog your memory

[BDennis]

Interesting thread.

I never had a camera when I was young, too expensive for my parents to buy me one perhaps. I went on a school trip to Switzerland and regretted not having one. A couple of years later my younger sister did the same trip and my parents bought her a cheap 110 film P&S camera, a bit more money sloshing about by then perhaps. When I did an Inter Rail summer trip as a student around Europe I borrowed the 110 camera and learnt the limitations of it but got some photos at least.

My father was a keen photographer and in the 1970s he bought an Olympus OM2n. On holidays he would occasionally let me take a photo with it and showed me how to load film so I learnt more about cameras and SLRs. On one trip I took loads of photos but we later discovered I hadn’t loaded the film properly so nothing to develop, lesson learned! My older brother also had a SLR, a Praktica I think so I learnt a few things off him but it was heavily guarded - perhaps because I was renowned for taking things apart to learn how they worked!

When I started work I couldn’t justify expenditure on a SLR system and dare not go into a camera shop so went into a Boots shop one day and bought an Olympus XA2. It was a great camera and I took lots of photos on it, especially on ski trips as it was great to keep in a pocket going up the mountains. A tough camera as one time I fell badly and it was in a chest pocket of my ski jacket and I probably cracked a rib due to that given the pain for weeks afterwards!

When my father passed away I inherited the OM2n system with his lenses and started to expand on that buying second hand gear and an OM4Ti body. Friends encouraged me to take photos on slide film. I stuck with that system for years and got an HP scanner and printer for digitising and printing from slide film.

In the 1990s being a computer geek I got interested in digital cameras. The idea of cutting out the film development and expense and printing my own photos at home was attractive. Digicams were expensive though! I got a Fujifilm MX700 for about £700 or something. It was Ok but a fixed lens. I took a lot of photos with it though and later lent it to my niece for a school trip.

After the Fuji I got an Olympus 2100 Ultra Zoom bridge style digital camera. This had a decent zoom lens with lens IS built in, the stabilisation was very good. I used this for some bird photography.

Then I started getting interested in what Olympus were doing towards a DSLR and bought the E-1 when that came out around 2004. Following that I bought the E3, E5 and somewhere in the mix an E510. I think I got the E510 because it was the first body with IBIS before they put it in the top line models. More lenses as well, then 50-200mm for wildlife then I must have got a pay rise and splashed out on a 90-250mm f2.8, a great lens for birds but heavy.

I bought the first PEN digital camera when that came out, an E-P1. It was quite good for video at the time, better than the DSLRs. So that was my first m43 camera. The sensor being so exposed changing lenses did worry me at the time.

Then Olympus announced that they were discontinuing the DSLR system changing to the m43 format. I decided to get the Em1Mk1 when it came out in 2014 - there was a good offer with the 4/3 lens adapter included and a grip. I was tempted to switch to Canon or Nikon for bird photography as the Olympus AF was such a challenge for wildlife action but I stuck with it and here we are!

So my photography journey has been Olympus / OM nearly all the way.

Bill

[ianinsuffolk]

63 years ago started with an Exa 1A, then to a Pentax Spotmatic S2. Found the M42 screw lens poor after the bayonet Exa. Then a change of loyalties which has never wavered! Being cash poor with young children it was all second hand for many years with a Olympus OM2, OM2S and finally a OM4Ti with a 35 to 80 f2.8 lens. The lens was an import from the states and was second hand. Still got the last two items and they were an amazing combination for the time.

Digital was knocking at the door so E500 was quickly followed by the E620. Micro four thirds arrived and the E-M5 was perhaps my favourite camera being light and capable. My son now uses it!

Brought a E M1 Mkii as soon as available and it's still my workhorse. Will only consider change if there is a significant increase in resolution. Apart from being a bit heavy for me now it remains a brilliant camera which I know 'inside out.' I've done some great 4K video with it, despite comments that only micro four thirds Panasonic is capable in such a set up.

Ian

[pdk42]

My rough history...

Age 11 - Kodak Instamatic !

Age 13 - Praktica L - which I bought used from a distant family member with saved pocket money

Age 14 - Pentax Spotmatic II - which my father bought for me after the Praktica died (broken shutter). It was bought used with a 50mm f1.4 and it was gorgeous

Age 22 - Sold the Pentax to fund starting a job etc etc and gave up photography for a while

Age 32 - Pentax MX. I loved that camera!

Age 38 - Pentax was stolen and I replaced it with a Canon EOS 50e - AF, auto film advance, ... Amazing

Age 39 - Canon P&S - my first digital camera

Age 42 - Canon 350d - my first digital SLR

Age 43 to 52 - Canon 40d, Canon 5dii.

Age 53 - Olympus E-PL5 - my first m43 camera. I was amazed at the IQ and the size

Age 53 to 62 - Almost every m43 camera that Olympus made - E-M5, E-P5, E-M10, E-M10ii, E-M1, E-M1ii, E-M1iii, E-M5ii, E-M5iii, OM1 (briefly). Plus two brief forays into Nikon and Sony FF

Age 62 to now - Panasonic FF, with a toe still in m43 via a newly-acquired E-M1iii (I love the EM1.3 - fantastic camera - in my view, Olympus's finest).

So, lots of years, and lots of cameras!

[blu-by-u]

Started with a Kodak box camera. It uses a 120 film which you advance turning the knob at the bottom and the red see thru ring to see the number. It was something fun to use as I could activate the shutter as many times as I wanted. So there were many with multiple exposures. Then I got a bit "serious" when i join the photography club in my school. my dad then got me a fujica ST-605. it came with a fix lens then later added a cheap zoom. All that in 1960s.

Then came the automatics. Had a weather sealed camera what melted . Then moved to a Pentax compact. Meanwhile my dad bought an Olympus trip 1/2 frame. Along the way, he got a lot of other stuff that I have inherited.

Then the digital age started. I got a minolta with a swivel lens for my work as my customer needed digital shots of the product. The start of my digital journey.

Moved on the several compacts but my choice then was AA powered. Then someone offered me an olympus 8080. I out grew that in a very short time and that's when I was looking for something with changeable lens. The Leica Digilux-3 was my dream but on further read, it was a rebadged Lumix L1 and was based on the older Oly 300. So the nearest affordable to me was that E-330. Articulated screen, 7.4mp and "LiveView".

I have been with Oly till the last SLR then moved on to the mft. Didn't really liked the EPs and those lumix. I was still hanging on to the E-330. When the EM-1, I moved. Not really happy but that was much better. Carried on using those 4/3 lenses with the MMF. Slowly moved to replacing all those to mft lenses.

Question is where to go when and if Oly really ends?

[pdk42]

I can’t see OM going out of business anytime soon. Lots to like in m43 and OM gear I think.

[blu-by-u]

The current owner is an investment company. So unless it's profitable, who knows?

[MJ224]

Hopefully, my present OMD gear will see me out. Unless of course the next OMD iteration is even more fantastic...

[Downwind Dec]

I don't have the deep pedigree of most of you. We had a couple of half decent compacts in the film days, but it was when the Panasonic FZ20 came along that I really started to enjoy photography. That was a surprisingly decent and versatile superzoom bridge camera, and it survived many sailing adventures over the years. It was eventually replaced by an FZ200 but, by this time, I was definitely feeling that the small -sensor bridge camera was holding me back.

I turned fifty in 2017 and, having recently lost my wife Valérie after her long fight with breast cancer, I reckoned it would do me no harm at all to invest in a proper camera and lenses. My brother is a keen photographer, and has long been a MFT enthusiast. It wasn't a hard decision in 2017, as certain big players were still lagging on mirrorless, and there were none who could touch the fabulous range of lenses available for this system. Brendan is a Panasonic shooter, but I was attracted by Olympus' long history of genuine innovation and a strong engineering ethos. And so, I found myself the proud owner of an EM1ii, and the 12-40 and 40-150 f2.8 Pro lenses.

I've accumulated a lot of lenses since, and the EM1ii is still going strong. I think the advances in RAW development software keep extending the useful life of these cameras and stop me looking elsewhere.

[pdk42]

If you shoot raw at ISOs under 6400 there is no IQ benefit to be had from any other Olympus or OM camera. The new Panasonic G9ii, with its dual gain sensor, can claim best IQ in m43 - but only if you don’t use burst modes or do long exposures.

So, your EM1.2 is not in any way an outdated camera, unless you need the latest and greatest AF or want to shoot at high ISO, where the OM1 has the edge.

[LadyG]

I started with an Instamatic at the age of 10 - a present when the school went on a trip to the Peak District. No idea where the pictures are though... after that I don't think I bought another camera until I moved to Malawi with the (ex) husband in 1975 - decided that I needed something better than the Instamatic and bought a Yashica 35mm - no idea what model. Went through a succession of P&S until I bought a Pentax SLR in the early 80's, then something went wrong with it and I went back to compacts - particularly a Pentax that had a long zoom and could shoot panoramics. Think it's still about somewhere. After that lost my way for some time and didn't really take a lot of photos. Post divorce started travelling and bought my first compact digital - a Fujifilm A340, I think, followed a couple of years later by a Canon A710 with an amazing 5mb. I thought that would be it, but I'd inherited £1000 from my birth father (long story, not relevant) and had promised to spend it on a holiday so booked a trip to Egypt and decided that the compact probably wouldn't be enough (it was a Cairo/Luxor trip so historical rather than seaside - although we did have a couple of days at Hurghada). That was in 2008.

Surprised myself by buying a Canon 400d (seen someone else who started with that) and really enjoyed it. Did the Open University beginners photography course and so the journey began. Gradually upgraded (550d, 7d, 5d3 and EOS-R), started shooting weddings for friends and family in 2010. Probably only did about 25 before I called a halt: the last one was for a friend who I'd taken a picture of at a music gig about 5 years before as he was dry humping someone in drag on their stag do.

After that it was mostly music photography, with the occasional charity shoot for a local hospice. That all came to a grinding halt as I developed polymyalgia rheumatica: 2 years ago after catching covid whilst shooting Alice Cooper at Birmingham Utilita things started going downhill: I had difficulty lifting my cameras (at that time I was using 2 full frame bodies with L zooms on a black rapid harness). Over the summer the camera gear got less and less until the last one in October when I just had the EOS-R and a 50mm f1.4.

So for the next year it was all phone photography - I've got a Google Pixel 6Pro which takes reasonable images, and you can shoot in DNG format, but I missed 'proper' photography and my partner's Sony RX100 didn't excite me. The year before I'd fallen ill I'd been to the photography show and tried every camera - I thought I'd be going the Sony or Fuji route but even they were too heavy. I'd love to have an OM-1 but don't really need it so went with an OM-5 and have been very happy in the 18 months since I bought it. Gradually accumulating lenses and trying not to get any more! Occasionally still shooting bands - I get a lot more invites than I shoot because they're usually too far away and I just don't have the stamina I used to. Having been pretty healthy until I was 68, it all went down hill very quickly after that!