Olympus OM-4

Such a beauty!

This is a review of the Olympus OM4 - a camera I bought on a car boot sale a few months ago for the grand total of £9 including a G-Zuiko 35-70 f/3.5-4.5.

The OM4 hit the shops in 1983. It was meant to replace the classic OM2n by giving it a more modern touch. The OM3/OM4 had a few updates (T for the US market and Ti for the rest of the world) both of them updating features like battery consumption, high speed flash synchronization and adding a Titanium frame. Whilst the OM4 sold well in it's different versions, it's sibling, the OM3, was a commercial disaster. Few were sold due to the extortionate prices for what it was essentially an OM1 with a spot metering - these cameras command now high prices in the second hand market.

The spot buttons

The OM4 feels so familiar. If you ever held an OM2 then you know that this is unmistakably it's sibling. There are a few changes though. Next to the advance lever there are the spot buttons. You can press the main spot button for up to 8 times whilst pointing to different parts of the picture and the camera will continuously average the readings. Point the meter on a white surface and press "Highlight" and it averages the exposure to get the right tone of bright white. Do the same with a black element and press "Shadows" and it will assure you get rich blacks. It also provides memory of previous readings if you wish to. If this spot meter is not your cup of tea, there is the old tried and tested centre weighted metering found on the OM2 (read my review here). 

From the OM-4 brochure

 Olympus claims that the camera's shutter mechanism had to be redesigned. It reaches 1/2000sec and has more than 50 different improvements over the older OM2 shutter. Also the camera is 1mm taller, according to Olympus this is due to the weather seals that are incorporated to make the camera "weather-proof" (notice: Not "water-proof").

Using the Olympus OM-4

Ok - now the warts. There are 5 things that Olympus did not do that well with this camera.

1) Battery consumption: you probably read it already - it goes through batteries fast. The problem was rectified in the following T/Ti version.

The issue is the IC which automatically shuts the power when not used - even when not in use it still consumes around 30 microamps of power compared to the typical 5-10 microamps of other cameras. With cameras using higher voltage batteries this is not noticeable but in the case of the OM4, the small batteries and three times higher drain rate makes it quite obvious.

There is no way of switching the camera off, turning the camera to "B" will do absolutely nothing. 

All OM3/OM4 came with a power drain issue but Olympus was offering repairs in the 80s. To check

Click for bigger size
Olympus OM-4 / Zuiko 35 f/2

if your camera has the newer circuit board do this: turn the camera to "battery check". If it switches off after 30 sec then you have the newer circuit. If it goes on and on and on then you have the old one (like I do).

To be honest, the OM4 is not my most battery hungry of my cameras. My Nikon F5 is worst and so is the EOS 5. Get into the habit of removing the batteries out of the camera if you do not use it. Do that with every camera. Having a camera that drains the battery leads to battery leaks and subsequent battery compartment corrosion.

2) The viewfinder is not as bright as the older OM2 and OM1. That is due to the secondary mirror (called piggyback mirror although I don't see myself calling it this way) used for the spot metering. It is not bad in any way, it is just less bright than the OM1/OM2.

3) If you store an exposure reading into memory, the "Spot" LED light blinks for 60 minutes!! Doesn't help with battery consumption.

4) The battery check switch is not cleverly designed. If you accidentally flick it to the "Check" position while putting the camera away, it will be checking the battery until they run out (the ones with the older circuit). The OM2 did it better.

5) Still no shutter button lock. You can easily trip the shutter whilst trying to take the camera out of the bag.

The mechanical speeds
and the lock button

With all the negatives out of the way, the OM4 is a typical OM. Small and well made, quiet and with a range of cheap and excellent lenses. I love it, the camera fits so nicely in my hands. It is slightly heavier than its predecessors (only by 20 grams) and if you ask me, I think it is much more handsome. People don't like the square-ish pentaprism but I prefer it over the triangular one of its older sibling.

The advance lever needs only a 130° stroke to fully advance the frame and the shutter button has a nice feeling to it. There is a lot of talk on the internet about the advance mechanism on the OM3/OM4 saying that it is not as smooth as the older siblings. I cannot see any difference, the advance on the OM4 is as smooth as my CLAed OM2n (that is, very smooth).

The OM4 is designed to work well with SR44 as well as the alkaline equivalents LR44. This is a positive step forward as the LR44 batteries are cheap and easy to find. But keep in mind that the cheap LR44 batteries found in drugstores have lower power capacity. This is a power hungry camera, batteries running low that work well with the OM2 do not even switch on the OM4. So my recommendation would be to buy good quality SR44 batteries to stay on the safe side.

There has been some criticism regarding the information in the viewfinder. The OM4 uses a

From the OM-4 brochure

horizontal graph where a bar fills up to indicate the right shutter speed for the chosen aperture. Now the problem is that you have no aperture indication in the viewfinder and things can get a bit confusing when you switch to "manual" mode. A marker appears half way through the graph and you are trying to bring the graph bar to match it without knowing what aperture you are using (you have to take your eyes off the viewfinder and look at the lens). I don't consider this to be a bad layout, in some ways it is similar to the old OM1's needle match, but it is not one of Olympus' greatest moments either.

The truth is that with your eye on the viewfinder it is a bit difficult to figure out the spot buttons. It involves moving your finger around and have a feel. Fortunately the information is visible on the viewfinder.

One of the good news is that the OM4 does not suffer from the deterioration of the foam in the viewfinder but all the foam that forms the camera's light seals has turned to sticky slime. I cleaned it and replaced it with self adhesive black felt. It always works for me.

Pull it towards one side and stores the
meter reading - pull the other way and
it clears it. Simple and effective.

A couple of other ergonomic hiccups. The self timer is the same switch that silences the beeper. It is so tiny that if you have the bad habit of biting your nails, you will find it difficult to switch between positions. Although the OM4 does not have a mirror lock, it does lift the mirror when on self timer (and be careful, the switch doesn't reset, it stays on self timer - you have to do it). 

Using the OM4 has been a pleasure. I didn't use the spot metering much except from a couple of times and that was out of curiosity mostly. I have to warn you, it can get quite addictive (hopefully you know what you are doing otherwise you are messing up with the exposure). The centre weighted metering is sufficient for me. For those not familiar with the OM-system, the placement of the shutter ring around the lens mount takes some time to get used to but once you do you'll like it. The OM4 is benefited by a mechanical speed of 1/60sec.

Spot metered off the statue's back and adjusted for Highlights (click for bigger)
Olympus OM-4 / Zuiko 50 f/1.4

There is a final minor complaint when it comes to using the spot metering. When the camera goes to sleep mode, the only button that activates the meter is the shutter button, half press it and wakes up the camera. If the meter is active you can press the spot button to take a reading. If you further need to adjust for Highlights/Shadows you press the appropriate button. Unfortunately you cannot avoid this sequence - for example if you haven't used the camera for a few minutes and suddenly you see a person wearing a white t-shirt, you can't just press the "Highlights" button to take a reading. You need to half press the shutter button (wake up the camera), then take a spot reading from the t-shirt and then press the Highlights button in order to adjust it. I think those buttons should be working independently.

Click for bigger Size
Olympus OM-4 / Zuiko 35 f/2

Why do I love these Olympus' so much? No idea really. Maybe because they just fit so nicely in my hands, the are handsome and I like the way Zuikos write the light on black & white film. At this point I only have 3 Zuikos, the 50 f/1.4, the 28 f/3.5 and the 35 f/2 - all of them are beautiful. This camera came with the G-zuiko 35-70 f/3.5-4.5 which is a nice lens but nothing too exciting. 

OTF metering works beautifully too (click for bigger).
Olympus OM-4 / Zuiko 50 f/1.4

Regarding the build quality, everything seems so well put together, nothing rattles and no play of buttons or other moving parts. If you are not in the habit of throwing cameras around, the chances are that these cameras are going to provide you with good service for many years to come. They are built to professional standards.

From the Olympus OM-4 brochure

Conclusion.

What a lovely camera this is. Will it dethrone it's older sibling (the OM-2n) and become my favourite camera? Difficult to say. What I can say so far is that despite having it only for a short while it definitely makes me wanting to pick it up more and more. Beautiful camera, get yourself one! In the meanwhile I am keeping an eye open for an OM3 although I know that there are not many out there in the wild.