wanted Olympus om2n camera and 50mm lens

[ronidog]

I know , perhaps the wrong place to ask amongst all this high tech stuff ! But you never know what people have lurking around the cupboards.

As the title says I am looking for an Olympus OM2n camera with an Olympus 50 mm lens. in good working order.

Thanks for reading this far..

Dave

[pdk42]

I have a 50mm f1.8 lens that I'm prepared to pass on for the cost of postage.

[ronidog]

That's brilliant Paul .I'll pm you my details.
Dave

[Otto]

I just looked on Ffordes who usually have a few but there are none there at all at the moment. I wonder if they're becoming popular! I bought one from them a few years ago for about £85. They have an OM-1n for £119 which is rather more than they were going for a year or two ago.

https://www.ffordes.com/c/318/olympus-om

[ronidog]

Thanks Otto, the prices of these old film cameras seem to have shot up in the last few years. The om2n seems particularly rare. I had one second hand in 80's served my right through to the days of digital. I have found one or two but thought that I would see if I could support someone on the forum in a little way first.

[ronidog]

ALL SORTED Thanks for looking.

I now have both a lens from Paul and a camera from LCE.winging their way to me.

[Phill D]

I know they are nice cameras but can I ask what you had in mind for it?

[cedge]

Funnily enough, I bought an Oly OM2n and 50mm lens last year for about £110 off eBay. I have borrowed the Oly 28mm f2.8 from a friend too although at the moment I'm shooting with a Konica Tc-X that I purchased for the princely sum of £22 simply because its super light (read plastic) and I have more (arguably better) lenses (28mm f3.5, 50mm f1.7 and 1.8 and 135mm f3.2) for the platform as the Oly OM glass is quite expensive in comparison.

[ronidog]

Phil D I just fancied revisiting the use of film and the simplicity of earlier cameras. In some ways I regretted having to px my original camera years ago. Now I am able to own both

[Phill D]

I can relate to that I have a 50mm f1.8 myself and often wondered about getting a body to put it on. I got it for £10 off ebay to try some macro using it reversed on my digital gear.

[pdk42]

I have an OM1 and a few lenses (24/2.8, 50/1.8, 100/2.8, and 135/3.5). I picked up the lenses mostly pretty cheaply on eBay. The most I paid was for the 100/2.8 at £100 - but it was a brand new lens, having sat in a box of a photo retailer since the 70s! It's amazingly compact for a 100mm lens - not much bigger than the 50mm.

I've put a few rolls of film through the camera since I acquired it, but in general I don't find the results worth the cost or effort put in. If I really want to get the analogue look, there are plenty of image processing tools available to help me do it. The feel and handling of the camera is a joy though - they don't make them like that any more!

[drmarkf]

Yes, I agree.
I get a lot of pleasure using my few classic lenses adapted on modern bodies (especially on my A7S, since you get native focal length) - the wonderful direct mechanical focusing of say a Zuiko 24mm f2.8 or a Rokkor 58mm f1.2 is a treat, and focus peaking and a tilting/flipping screen add to the experience. Sure they might not be quite as sharp across-the-frame as modern glass, but so what!
I have certainly been tempted to try a few rolls of Tri-X or something, but have resisted for the sort of reasons you mention.
BTW this is a really good book to learn from, even if you have no intention of ever using film: https://thefilmphotographyhandbook.com/tfph/index.php

[ronidog]

I have ordered the book from Wordery at about 60% of the price. Thanks for the signpost

[Ian]

I have an OM1 and a few lenses (24/2.8, 50/1.8, 100/2.8, and 135/3.5). I picked up the lenses mostly pretty cheaply on eBay. The most I paid was for the 100/2.8 at £100 - but it was a brand new lens, having sat in a box of a photo retailer since the 70s! It's amazingly compact for a 100mm lens - not much bigger than the 50mm.

I've put a few rolls of film through the camera since I acquired it, but in general I don't find the results worth the cost or effort put in. If I really want to get the analogue look, there are plenty of image processing tools available to help me do it. The feel and handling of the camera is a joy though - they don't make them like that any more!

I don't know if you shot film before digital but certainly in the 70s and even the 80s a lot of lenses needed to be stopped down because they were soft at full aperture.

Olympus was able to make fantastically compact OM lenses because, unlike digital sensors, there is no loss in brightness and definition towards the corners because of frame. This is the so-called telecentric design factor; not required for film but essential for digital, resulting in wider and longer optical designs in relation to the frame size.

Ian

[Otto]

I remember Oly making a big deal of their telecentric design when the 4/3 system was launched. It made perfect sense to me!

[pdk42]

I got my first real camera in 1973 when I was 13 years old - a used Pentax Spotmatic-F with a splendid Takumar 50mm f1.4 lens. It cost £92 and I paid £10 of that from my pocket money and birthday present savings; the rest my father paid. In modern money, £92 is £1100 so it was quite a chunk of money. My father worked as a toolmaker with Lucas Aerospace so he was a skilled craftsman, but certainly not rich by any margin. I didn't realise it at the time, but it must have been quite a sacrifice for him. But he did spark a lifetime's interest, so I guess it was money well spent! I'm very grateful for his generous love.

The Pentax was a lovely camera, but the OM1 was the camera I really lusted after. I never had the money to afford one though. Then in 2014, I bagged a beautiful copy, with recently re-fitted light seals and a service. Complete with the 50mm f1.8 lens, it cost me £35. A bargain - and about £3 in 1973 money!

I did my own B&W developing for years and even tried my hand at colour printing - not an easy task in my parents' kitchen!

[Ian]

pdk42 Very interesting - Spotmatic and screw mount lenses The OM was quite revolutionary for its time. I did a lot of black and white at school (often busy in the dark room on sports afternoons ) and I also worked in a camera shop that sold a lot of developing gear. I was never really satisfied with colour printing from film and it was so much hassle compared to black and white. But I did shoot a lot of slide film and even bulk loaded my own 35mm cassettes. I had a nice little business at school developing schoolfriends' E4 and later E6 slide films

[ronidog]

The other reason for wanting to do some film work was to have a retro set of the Leeds and Liverpool canal from Saltaire through to Skipton. However there is no rush at the moment as the tow path is not always wide to suit todays situation!

I know I could do this digitally but its just not the same as I hate processing images