Welcoming Back an Old Friend

Moving from Nikon to Canon has had one benefit. It meant I could get an old EOS film body and get a couple of cheap lenses that I could use with my digital body and not have to run yet another system. That old film body was the 50E.

The 50E is one of my all time favourite cameras. I love the styling, which has never dated like some cameras. Yes, the 30 which replaced it was sleeker and had more autofocus points, but I think this looks better. It’s also nice to have a camera with eye controlled focus again. I know some people didn’t like it, but I’ve always been a fan of it and I think it is a shame that Canon never carried on developing it.

So welcome back old friend. I look forward to putting you through your paces.

Pure Class

When I first decided to replace my Nikon F60, I decided I wanted something smallish and quiet. Something unassuming so I could use it around the streets of Leeds without everyone hearing the motor drive. My first choice within my price range was Nikon’s FG. Then, by accident, I noticed an Olympus OM-2n for pretty much the same price as the FG! I couldn’t believe I could get a top of the range OM for the same price as a bottom of the range Nikon. Well, that seemed like a no-brainer!

I found a nice condition OM-2n with 50mm F1.8 Zuiko lens, and to make it better, the seals were renewed, which saved me a job. All for the price of a Nikon FG. Go figure!

First Impressions
It maybe down to personal taste, but there is something about the OM-2n that looks fantastic. It is small for an SLR and light and it oozes quality. Every button, switch and dial feels as if someone gave a damn when it was built. Not disappointed.

In Use
Being compact, my fingers tended to struggle to find a comfortable grip. Yet when out shooting with it, I didn’t notice it. I grabbed it, shot and held it without thinking or being bugged. Even with large hands, it’s nice to shoot with.
The viewfinder is big and bright and it has a match needle for metering. This is the only let down for me really – I’m not a fan of match needles as they can be hard to see. This one is particularly tough. The viewfinder appears so big, that the match needle is about a half a mile over to the left. Thankfully, metering on the OM-2n is near bullet-proof.

Left on aperture priority, I was quite pleased with the exposure here. A mixture of highlights and lowlights and the camera has exposed the shot evenly.

For adjustment in auto, a chunky exposure compensation dial sits near the shutter button that can compensate in thirds of a stop with firm clicks. Nice. The exposure compensation dial is also where the ASA is set.

For manual mode, the shutter is placed around the lens mount, which does take some getting used to if, like me, you’re used to it by the shutter. it doesn’t take long to get used to it though. The one thing I did struggle with however was the location of the aperture ring. If it had been in front of the shutter ring, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but I kept having to look for it at the front of the lens. Thankfully, many of the Zuiko zoom lenses place the aperture ring at the back of the lens.

50mm lens
Nice though the 50mm F1.8 is, I’m just used to zooms and so a 35-70 is on the cards at some point. Another issue I had with the 50mm was the focus ring. Although only 3/4 of a turn from minimum focus to infinity, it seems to take several turns to focus it. I found I needed to change my grip on the lens to focus it, then change my grip again to adjust the aperture. There’s no denying the image quality of the 50mm, it’s just not the easiest 50mm to focus.

Results
If it was going to be my main lunchtime camera around Leeds, I needed to test in and around Leeds, ending up at the Central Library again. Loaded up with Fuji Pro400H colour negative film, it produced some nice results, with no over or under exposed shots.

Not the greatest composition, but nicely exposed.

Conclusion
The OM-2n earned a reputation as a reliable workhorse and I can see why. I’d rate it as the most consistent and reliable manual focus SLR I’ve ever used. It’s not perfect, but then again, what is? For the price though, this has got to be the best used manual focus SLR money can buy.

No One Uses Film Anymore…

…or so say’s Nikon.

Maybe it’s the time of year getting to me, but I came across a couple of black and white competitions and decided to enter. I’m not usually one for competitions as experience has taught me that I never win them, but I this time I thought, ‘what the heck’. It’ll be an experience.
One of them happened to be Nikon’s Inframe webzine’s photo of the month competition and there was no limit to the number of pictures I could enter, as long as they were taken with a Nikon camera. So it was time to dust off my old negatives (or scans of old negatives) and submit some of my older stuff. What a surprise to learn that only images taken with a Nikon Digital SLR or Coolpix were eligible. I guess Nikon don’t think anyone uses their film cameras anymore. So that’s it then, everyone has gone digital. It’s official. Nikon say’s so!
Seems a shame for Nikon to exclude film photographers, especially since there is not shortage of buyers for Nikon SLR’s on ebay. Indeed, it would appear that despite what Nikon thinks, there are still plenty of togs shooting film.
I’ve contacted Nikon and it should be interesting to see what they say, if they respond! Until then, I’ve got a post Christmas project involving a couple of rolls of Tmax 3200 and an F301 that has been stood on my desk for far too long.

Come on Nikon. remember some of us still use film.