Comments on: Yoshihisa Maitani

By: R. E. Nixon

R. E. Nixon — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:08:55 +0000

I began with a Pentax K1000, migrated through the ME, MX and LX . . . and they all had that noisy mirror slap. But they were all cameras that changed how I felt about art. Yeah, I moved to Nikon as I turned pro, but the OM-1 turned me into an Olympus person.

The optics are unbelievable. in the 4/3rds system, the 12-60 beats everything around it. It’s closest competitor is made by Leica (Panasonic, really) and doesn’t even come close to the MTF curves as to resolution and contrast. And costs more, last time I looked.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:34:58 +0000

Phil/Gustav,

OM1 now in regular use. Brilliant lenses, which are small, light, and, now, cheap.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:28:39 +0000

I bought an OM-2N in the early Eighties, when I was still at university. I couldn’t afford too many or too good lenses, making do with Tokinas at that time.
Then the camera rested on the shelf for about eight years.
Only two or three years ago did I rediscover the trusty oold friend. And, hey, it is fun to be able to pick up those wonderful original OM lenses (what a difference they make!) for next to nothing, compared to their new prices.
I even bought a second Om-2N body and now shoot more photos than ever.
These little things are way more fun than any electronic marvel of our day – and of course they are more reliable and better built.

By: Gustav

Gustav — Wed, 16 May 2007 22:00:17 +0000

I have had an OM 2 with the basic Zuiko 50/1.8 for a couple of years. Great optics, camera body has good ergonomics and viewfinder. I like it a lot.

Recently bought an OM10, with the 50/1.8, for one of my kids who want to learn photography. 235 SEK (not 20 pounds).

By: Flaneur

Flaneur — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:49:05 +0000

I remember reading somewhere that Maitani has a cult following. He even carries with him a diamond-tip pen, to be able to autograph metal cameras. Cool.
I’ve been a Pentax man for years (K1000, MX, LX, ME Super, 6×7), but I recognize the master design Maitani is. He invented the compact slr with the OM, and was a trendsetter.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 18:14:13 +0000

Dave:

“Man, is that Zuiko 50mm f1.8 one nice, lens (a kit lens, at that!).

Glad to hear that. I have one in the post.

By: Dave New

Dave New — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 17:52:23 +0000

I bought an OM-10 when my daughter was born in 1980 — a reaction to not being able to take decent baby photos with a fixed focus box camera (brownie fiesta anyone?). I used it for many years as the family archivist, and also a few forays into some artistic landscape work, but finally it ended up on the shelf, a victim of my having obtained (ostensibly for my wife) an Olympus weatherproof ‘zoom’ point-n-shoot, which promptly accompanied me on numerous family fishing trips to Canada.

Finally, that too found the shelf. I had tired of dealing with all those rolls of film, bad drugstore prints, etc., etc.

Fast forward to about 2000, and I re-discovered photography in the form of a Nikon Coolpix 4500. Moving quickly from there to Canon DSLRs, I now take far more shots than I ever did on negs/slides, and enjoy it immensely.

Funny, I still have the OM-10, and pull it out now and then to admire the design, viewfinder, etc. Also, the weatherproof Olympus point-n-shoot was subject to a recent recall (bad flash charging circuit), and Olympus replaced it with a new-fangled Stylus 150 weatherproof zoom. It’s interesting to see how sophisticated these little film cameras have become over the years. It sports almost as much auto-focus, auto-everything (and also manual override for exposure compensation, etc) as an entry-level DSLR has these days.

Don’t know what I’ll do with my new-found film point-n-shoot film prowess, or if I’ll ever put another roll of film in the OM-10, but it’s fun to think about.
Man, is that Zuiko 50mm f1.8 one nice, lens (a kit lens, at that!).

By: Oren Grad

Oren Grad — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 17:19:36 +0000

Yes, the LX is too loud – really my only gripe with it. But in terms of its size, shape, weight and overall “feel” in my hand, it remains my favorite SLR of all time.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:58:55 +0000

Oren: we had an XA way back when. It got dropped badly, and in those pre-internet days replacing it meant going with the latest model – which was autofocus by then.

The LX was my mainstay camera for ages. Great viewfinder(s). I recall it being a bit noisy, but that may be my memory playing tricks.

By: Oren Grad

Oren Grad — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:48:44 +0000

Maitani is remarkable for having developed at least four innovative system concepts – in addition to the OM system, don’t forget the Olympus Pen point-and-shoot and SLR cameras and the XA-series compact cameras.

Maitani is fairly well-known among hard-core American photographers of a certain age – he was featured in Olympus advertising in American photo magazines perhaps 25 years ago, around the time that the XA was current.

Although I never did warm up to the control layouts and feature sets of the various OM models – the Pentax MX and LX were more my speed – I have enormous respect for Maitani’s accomplishments, and especially appreciate his bias toward compactness and light weight and the ingenuity of his mechanical designs.