Olympus μ Zoom 115 (also Mju Zoom 115)

This is a sophisticated point-and-shoot camera. It is clearly a development of Olympus's XA series. The camera opens by sliding a cover to the right, exposing the lens and switching on the electrics. Controls are minimal making it very much a point-and-shoot camera. In fact, it is quite possible to ignore the few controls provided and then you have a basic point-and-shoot with a 38 mm lens (and autofocus).

Closed/off

All of the controls are on top of the camera. On the far right of the camera is the zoom control. This defaults to the shortest focal length of 38 mm. This is slightly wide for a 35 mm camera but not excessively so. 'Normal' for 35 mm (the diagonal of the negative) is 43 mm. Pulling the control will zoom the lens to 115 mm (hence the name of the camera). A nice touch is that the viewfinder also zooms so the viewfinder image always matches the lens image.

Open/on

Next to the zoom control is the shutter release. This is a fairly large chrome plated button. This is easy to find by touch which is as it should be.

Next to the shutter release are two small chrome plated buttons. The front one sets the delay timer and the rear one sets the flash mode. There are six flash modes. Default is the flash firing when there is insufficient light without it. The first selectable mode is red-eye reduction where the camera fires a few low intensity flashes to make the subject's pupils contract before the main flash. The second mode is no flash - this allows you to take moody pictures in poor light. 

Third mode is the flash always on. This is for fill-in flash when the background is brighter than the subject. The fourth mode is night-portrait mode - this restricts the flash to illuminating the subject while leaving the background dark. The fifth mode is a combination of the first and fourth modes - night-portrait with red-eye reduction.

Next to these controls is a small LCD display. This gives minimal information: frame number, flash mode, delay on/off. To the left of the LCD display is a small pop-up flashgun.

Telephoto position (115 mm)

On the back is the viewfinder eyepiece. This has a dioptre adjustment so us spectacle wearers can use this camera without our glasses. Also on the back is a small window to allow the user to see what sort of film is in the camera - or, indeed, if there is any film in there at all. This is a simple but very useful facility for those of us with several (!) cameras as it is very easy to forget which camera is loaded with which film.

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Blog (c) John Margetts 2014
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On the base is a standard (1/4 inch UNC which is just about the same as the old standard of 1/4 Whitworth) tripod boss. This is right on the right-hand end of the camera. This is not a good place to have this (in the centre is better and under the lens node is ideal) but I doubt this camera ever gets used with a tripod. 

Also on the base is a recessed button to allow for rewinding the film before it is finished. When the film is finished, rewind is automatic.  The battery chamber is on the right-hand end of the camera. The battery is a CR123 lithium battery which is still readily available.

Back

I currently have a film in the camera and I will report on using the camera and the image quality when the film is finished.

20 September 2014

I have my test film back from Snappy Snaps and here are the results.  This camera is rather easy to use - the only real awkwardness I have experienced is that it is a bit small for my hands - then again, this is a compact camera!

Image quality is certainly good enough for snap shots, which is what the camera is really for.  I would not use it for serious photography, but I might carry it on those occasions when I do not want to be encumbered with kit - a night out, perhaps.

The first few are of a herd of cows/calves at Frampton Marsh RSPB nature reserve, Lincolnshire (near to Boston).  I am quite pleased with these - I like cattle - but the close-ups show a design weakness.  The camera is happy to take a picture when it cannot focus.  At the least, a warning would be nice.

This flower was blowing in the wind outside the visitor centre at Frampton Marsh. It has been captured fairly well - indicating that the automatic exposure system has selected a fast enough shutter speed. I have added a crop of the top flower to show how well the camera has captured detail - quite well, I think.  The graininess of the magnified picture will be a mix of the grain of the Agfa Vista + film and the medium quality scan I asked the lab to do.

Crop of the top flower.

This next picture was taken in poor light with mist in the distance. It is the British Sugar sugar beet processing factory at Bardney seen across a field of wheat stubble.

 

The next three are close-ups taken in a wood. The first is not very impressive - I cannot make out what the white blobs are although I suspect they were fungi of some sort.  The third picture is exposed quite well, but the first two show the limitations of the camera in challenging conditions.

The next is Lindum Hill in Lincoln. A bright but not sunny day - all seems to be well.

The rest are of Wells (in Somerset, not Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk I usually photograph). The camera has done well here - I could use this camera for street photography as it is quite discrete in use and works well in an urban situation.

Legacy lens adapters

In the course of collecting these old camera, I have also collected a number of old lenses, some of which are very good.

My Olympus OM10 camera has a Zuiko 50mm, f1.8 lens which six elements in five groups and a Vivitar zoom lens (75-205mm) which has a very good reputation.  I also have another Vivitar zoom lens (20-200mm) which doesn't have quite the same reputation as the other Vivitar but performs very well nonetheless.

My Zenit E came with the famous Helios-44 which is a superb copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar (six elements in four groups) and my Praktica LT3 came with a Meyer Optiks Domiplan which is a triplet - so not in the Zuiko or Helios-44 league but a good performer when stopped down.

When thinking about a 50mm prime lens for my Canon DSLR, it occurred to me that I already had several good  50mm prime lenses and was there any point in buying another?

With this thought in mind, I looked into buying an adapter so I could use one of my old prime lenses (it would seem that these  have morphed into legacy lenses while i wasn't looking).

First, I looked into buying an adapter for my Olympus OM lenses.   There are a number of these available and they are quite cheap.  These range from simple metal rings with an OM female bayonet on one side and an EF male bayonet on the other - these cost £2 to £3 each - to more complex adapters with electrical contacts and a chip.  this is then one I bought and it cost me £12.99 including postage.

The adapter ring is very well made out of brass which has been chrome plated.  The EF bayonet fits smoothly into the Canon digital camera and, similarly, the Olympus lenses fit smoothly into the female side of the adapter.

When the lens, adapter and camera are all fitted together, the result is snug and secure.  There is no significant play, even with the heavy and long Vivitar zoom.    The electrical contacts make contact and the camera recognises the adapter.

The point of the contacts and chip is so that the focal length and aperture of the lens can be stored in the Exif data of the resulting digital file.  th achieve this it is necessary to programme the chip on the adapter.  t5rhis is actually quite easy - but not simple as it involves quite a few steps. Once the adapter is programmed for a particular lens, it is necessary to manually set the aperture on the lens and then separately set the aperture on the camera - this aperture is then stored in the Exif data.

If accurate Exif data is important to you, this process will be worthwhile (and will be necessary to repeat for each lens you use with the adapter) but I routinely ignore Exif data so I do not bother with the process.  If, like me, you want to be simple, you just focus the lens, set the aperture (you need the camera to be in Av mode) and let the camera select the shutter speed.

The adapter works well so long as you remember the lens is entirely manual - you need to focus and set the aperture for each shot.  Given that I use fully manual cameras a lot of the time, this should be second nature, but as soon as I pick up my digital DSLR I forget to worry about focus and exposure.

My next adapter is for M42 lenses (also known as Pentax fit, although developed by Zeiss Ikon in Dresden in the 1940s).

I had two M42 lenses when I bought this adapter - the Helios-44 Biotar copy and the Meyer-Optik Domiplan.  Both screwed nicely into the adapter but there is a problem with the Domiplan lens in that it is an automatic lens - there is a pin on the lens that must be depressed by the camera just before the shutter is released in order to close the diaphragm. The adapter leaves this pin alone so the Domiplan can only be used wide open.  

Actually, while trying to get this lens to work with the adapter, I noticed that the lens has a significant fungal growth on one of the inner glass surfaces.  This lens is now in the dustbin!

The Helios-44 lens worked well.  This adapter is a simple aluminium disc with no contacts or chip sop there is no need to set anything up.  The same working method as with the OM adapter is required - focus with the lens diaphragm wide open, stop down the lens to the required aperture and let the camera sort out the shutter speed.  As there are no contacts, no lens details are stored in the Exif data.

Both adapters are easy to use and work well.  Not being interested in the Exif data, I would have been better off buying a cheaper and simpler OM adapter, but the one I did buy was certainly cheap enough.

Theoretically, as the camera is metering the light through the lens it should give the right exposure regardless of the lens used.  It has been suggested to me that TTL meters do not cope well at low light levels so will give poor exposure at small apertures.  I have not found that.  Initially, using the OM adapter with the Zuiko 50mm lens, the camera consistently overexposed at all apertures with the highlights clipping in all photographs.  The cause of this is that I was not setting the aperture on the camera as well as on the lens so the metering system assumed - incorrectly - that the lens would shut down when I pressed the shutter release.

Repeating my OM test exposures with the camera set to f1.8, the exposures were fine with the histograms coming up well to the left with no clipping.  This setting of the aperture on the camera as well as on the lens is only a problem with chipped adapters - or you can do as I now will and keep the camera set to its smallest aperture.

When using the Helios-44 with its simple adapter, the exposure histograms were well to the left and without any clipping so giving usable photographs.  This is regardless of the aperture set on the lens.  With this adapter, it is not possible to set an aperture on the camera as the absence of contacts makes the camera default to f00

Test pictures:  first, the same scene at different apertures (after these, a focal plane test).

OM adapter with a Zuiko 50mm, f1.8 lens.

 

aperture f16

aperture f5.6

aperture f1.8

M42 adapter with Helios-44 58mm, f2 lens.

aperture f16

aperture f56.

aperture f2

Focal plane test:  in order to focus on infinity, it is necessary that the focal node of the lens is the right distance from the film/sensor.  For a 50mm lens, this distance is 50mm (in some designs, the node might be in front of the physical lens).  This distance is split in two.  The first part is the film/sensor to mount distance (obviously, this never changes) and the second part is the mount to node distance.  This second part is susceptible to being changed by the adapter.  If the mount is too thin, the lens will still focus on infinity but its near focus point will be further away than intended.  If the mount is too thick, the lens will focus on nearer objects ok but will not be able to focus on infinity.  It is this last that I want to check.  I am not too bothered if I cannot focus on an object two feet away but I am very bothered about not being able to focus on infinity.  To be clear, I had better define 'infinity' - for this purpose, it is anything over 50metres away.

First the OM adapter.  The first picture is a standard scene in Lincoln.  The second picture is an enlarged crop from the centre to critically check the focus.

detail from the centre

Now the M42 adapter.

detail from the centre

You can see by comparing the two details that the Zuiko is performing better at a distance.  I think I can safely say that this lens adapter is correctly placing the lens in the mount.  The detail from the Helios-44 photograph is a lot less clear - but I cannot say if it is down to the adapter or the lens performance.  It is certainly good enough to use.

Olympus PEN EE (half frame)

Olympus PEN EE (Marque 2)

I have been keeping half an eye out for a PEN for some time and this one came up on Ebay.  It is the second marque EE made in March 1966 (the date of manufacture can be found by removing the film pressure plate.  There is a two digit code there.  The first digit is the year, the second digit is the month.  The code on mine is 63 which could be 1966 or 1976 but the EE was only made until 1966 so the manufacture year must be 1966).  This is my third Olympus camera, the others being a Trip and an OM10.

The camera is surprisingly heavy - it has an all-metal construction with the main body being cast from aluminium alloy.  The EE (Electric Eye) can be distinguished from other PEN cameras by the ring of the exposure meter around the lens.  The camera is small - 105 mm by 65 mm and 45 mm thick.  There are two strap lugs and the camera comes with a plastic wrist strap.  It also comes with a leatherette bag which is a very tight fit.  I think mine might have shrunk.

Rear view

The shutter is a Copal shutter with two speeds - 1/30 and 1/250.  Normally, the camera uses the 1/250 shutter speed, the 1/30 being reserved for flash use.  There is a manual over-ride of sorts in as when you attach a flash gun, you need to set the aperture  according to the guide number of the flash.  This sets the shutter speed to 1/30 and disables the automatic exposure system.  You can use this without the flash for use in poor light.  1/30 for a shutter speed might seem a bit on the slow side for a hand held camera but the focal length of the lens is 28 mm and the recommended slowest shutter speed for 35 mm photographer is the reciprocal of the focal length so the minimum speed here is 1/28 .

The lens is a D. Zuiko 28mm f3.5 lens.  The 'D' prefix indicates that there are four elements (pieces of glass) in the lens.  This suggests that this is a Tessar copy.  The standard lens for a camera is taken to be the diagonal of the negative (or sensor for digital cameras).  The negative is 18 mm by 24 mm so the diagonal (using Pythagoras's Theorem) is 30 mm.  This means that a standard lens for this camera will be 30 mm so the 28 mm lens is very slightly wide angle.  This lens takes two different filter sizes.  The smaller filter size is 22.5 mm and the filter fits over the lens but inside the exposure meter sensor.  My PEN has a UV filter in this place.  The lens also takes larger, 43.5 mm filters which fit over the exposure meter sensor which means that the camera automatically takes account of light adsorption by the filter.

Vertical viewfinder

The viewfinder is a bit strange at first use.  It is vertical (portrait format) rather than the more usual horizontal (landscape format) viewfinders on other cameras.  This is because the camera is a half-frame camera - only half a normal frame of film is exposed at one time.  This means that the pictures are vertical in the roll of film.  This doesn't really matter - it just means you have to turn the camera on to its side for landscapes rather than for portraits.  In use, it really doesn't matter.

This camera is very easy to use.  It is small enough to use entirely one handed - ideal for street photography - the shutter release and wind-on wheel both falling naturally under the fore-finger and thumb respectively, even with my large hands.  The wrist strap keeps the camera near enough tom the hand that it can be picked up one handed.  Being a one-handed camera, turning the camera for landscape is so easy.  Once the film is loaded, there are no setting to make - or, indeed, possible.  This is strictly a point and shoot camera.

30-7-2013:

I now have a test film from this camera developed and scanned.  Here are the results.  At this size (4" by 3") they look OK.  They do not bear enlarging much above this size.  To be fair to Olympus, the market this camera was aimed at would have been happy with 4x3 prints (this camera dates from the mid-1960s) and relatively small prints is all that was on offer as a matter of course.

These pictures were taken in Bamburgh in Northumbria.

Olympus Trip 35

Olympus Trip 35

 These were extremely popular, simple cameras made between 1967 and 1984.  My particular specimen was made in April 1982.

The camera is small - 215mm by 170mm by 160mm - and is quite light by film camera standards.  Controls are minimal.  The user must set the film speed - ASA only, no DIN - and focus the camera.  So, not quite a point-and-shoot camera but very close to.  The ASA settings are from ASA 25 to ASA 400.

There is a light meter around the lens and the camera selects both shutter speed and aperture to suit the light levels.  There are two shutter speeds - 1/40 and 1/200.  1/40 is rather slow with most cameras but the Zuiko lens has a focal length of 40mm 1/40 is about as slow as the camera can go without evidence of camera shake.  This also presupposes that the pictures will not be enlarged much above 5x7.  Of course, there is a tripod socket so in poor light you can always attach the camera to a tripod - the shutter release is threaded for a standard cable release.  If there is insufficient light to take a picture, a red flag comes up inside the viewfinder and the shutter is locked.  This also has the added benefit of preventing you taking a roll of film with the lens cap on (don't laugh - some of us have done that with other cameras).

Available apertures are f2.8 to f22.  While the camera usually selects these, it is possible to select them manually for when using flash.  If you do, the shutter speed is set to 1/40.  For the flash, there is both a hot-shoe connection and a PC socket.  The actual aperture is square, so this camera is not going to produce particularly attractive bokeh (this is the only negative thing I have to say about this camera).

The viewfinder is quite small and has bright lines to outline the image area.  There are also smaller bright lines to show the image area when taking head-and-shoulders portraits.

The lens is a Zuiko 40mm lens of a Tessar type - four elements in three groups.  Focussing is essentially zone focussing with settings for:

1) head and shoulders

2) small groups

3) large groups

4) landscapes

If this is not accurate enough for you, then under the lens is a dual focussing scale in feet and metres.  This goes from three feet to infinity.

Inside the Olympus Trip 35

Finally, there are lugs on the sides for a neck strap and the camera comes with a wrist strap - more useful for a camera of this size.

When I bought this camera, the light seals had degenerated to a black sticky mass.  It is extremely easy to replace these with thin self-adhesive foam.

Sample pictures:



Trip AF 50

In time the excellent Trip 35 was replaced with a cheaper to make and more automatic camera - the Trip AF 50.  This is a plastic camera with a built in flash and auto-focus.  It is a well made camera but not in the same class as the original Trip 35 to which it owes nothing but the name.

Olympus Trip AF 50

Olympus OM 10

Olympus OM10 front view

Excepting my Canon EOS cameras, this is my newest camera dating from between 1970 and 1988.  It is an aperture priority automatic exposure camera.  Olympus produced a manual adapter which more of later.  At this age, the camera only offers manual focussing but as I am not a fan of automatic focussing this is no big deal.

The camera is very light suggesting it has a plastic construction and so will  not be as durable as a die cast alloy camera.  It measures 136mm wide by 83 mm high and 50mm thick and weighs just under half a kilo (so is half the weight of my trusty Zenit E!).  This camera requires batteries to work.  Luckily they are not mercury cells so will still be available.

In use, one selects the required aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed.  This shutter speed is indicated by way of a red LED in the viewfinder.  As a landscape photographer, this is the way I want to work, so this is ideal.  Available speeds are 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, 500 and 1000  (all fractions of a second).  The one second setting is actually one second or longer, according to the manual.  What I do miss that more modern cameras offer is an exposure lock by half depressing the shutter release.

Available apertures depend on the lens being used.  I would have liked my 'new' OM10 to have had an Olympus 50mm lens but it came with a Vivitar 75-205 macro zoom lens.  This lens is very well thought of but its minimum focal length is too long for most work.  I have just replaced it with a Vivitar 28-200 macro zoom which does not have quite the same reputation but seems to be at least ok.

There are three controls on the top plate -

1) B-Auto-Manual
2)Film speed (ASA 25 to 1600)
3) Off-On-Self timer-battery check

Olympus OM10 top plate

1) is normally set to Auto.  B will allow the shutter to remain open while the shutter release is depressed and manual allows the manual adapter to be used.

2) sets the film speed and also allows exposure compensation of either 1, 2 or three stops each of which is available as over or under exposure.

3) is self-explanatory.  in the off position photos can still be taken, correctly exposed, but there will be no visual indication of the shutter speed.

Also on the top plate are the shutter release, film advance lever and rewind knob.  There is also a frame counter and, around the shutter release, a collar that will take the camera out of sleep mode.

The only other control is the rewind switch which is on the front of the camera just below the shutter release.  You need to turn this 1/4 turn to dis-engage the sprockets inside the camera and allow the film to be rewound.

Below the rewind switch is a light/bleeper unit.  This sounds and lights up when the control (3) is set to battery check.  If the battery is flat or missing it neither sounds nor lights up.  It also sounds and th light flashes when the self-timer is selected.  this lasts for about twelve seconds before the shutter is released.

This camera sports a 'hot shoe' accessory shoe with three contacts.  The metal sides, centre spot (x synch) and a flash charge/auto check contact.  This last designed for using Olympus's own flash units but can be used with generic flash guns in Auto mode and the manual adapter set to 1/30 seconds.

Underneath the camera are fittings and contacts for a auto winder.  It would seem that this camera will not accept a motor-drive.

Olympus OM10 underside

The last detail I shall mention is that the shutter release is threaded for  a standard cable release.

                                                                                                                                                   

The Manual Adapter

manual adapter - front

Contrary to the practice with other manufacturers there is no built in way of over-riding the automatic exposure system.  To do so, you have to buy the optional manual adapter which plugs into a jack socket on then upper left front of the camera.

Manual adapter - side

To use this, you need to set the selector (1) to manual.  This over-rides the Automatic system and allows you to set the shutter speed yourself, as well as the aperture.

I cannot quite see the point of this as it is much easier to just use the Auto mode and adjust the aperture until the camera selects the shutter speed you require.














While most cameras made since the mid-1950s have very similar controls, it helps to become used to a particular camera.  I am currently on my second roll of film in my OM10 and the camera is becoming easier to use.

One thing I am getting used to is only being able to adjust the aperture, the camera taking care of the shutter speed.  mostly, I use entirely manual cameras and I am just learning not to look for the speed selector with this camera.

I am also getting used to the split-screen focussing circle in the centre of the viewfinder.  I am actually quite happy with just a plain focussing screen but the split-screen is actually faster when I remember it is there.

I am using a Vivitar 28-200mm zoom lens with this camera which is a fairly heavy lens - it completely unbalances the light-weight body of the OM10.  It is my intention to get a Zuiko 50mm lens for this camera at some point - I mostly take pictures at the normal focal length but the camera came with the Vivitar so that is what I am using at the moment.

Apart from the unbalancing effect of the heavy lens, this is a delightful camera to use.  While there is a definite "clunk" when you press the shutter release, I suspect I am sub-consciously comparing this to the whisper of the leaf shutters in the cameras I mostly use.  It is certainly a lighter action than with my Zenit E!



18 April 2013:  update.

I now have a Zuiko 50mm Auto-s lens for this camera.  It is a solidly made lens, weighing slightly more than my new Canon 50mm lens that also has auto-focus machinery in it.  Available apertures are from f1.8 to f16 and the lens focusses from 0.45m to infinity - the distance scale is marked in metres and in feet.  The focussing ring has a nice, tactile rubber finish which will make this lens easy to use by feel.

There is a button on the side of the mount that allows you to stop the lens down to see your depth of field.  The lens is entirely mechanical - the aperture settings are fed to the exposure system in the camera by a moving nudger and the diaphragm is closed just prior to exposure by a second nudger.

To be technical, it has six elements in five groups - the previous version of this lens was marked 'f Zuiko', the 'f' indicating the number of elements (a=1, b=2 etc) but this lens is just marked 'Zuiko'.  It takes 49mm threaded filters.

I shall upload some test pictures when I have some.



Sample pictures from the Olympus OM10 with a Vivitar 70-205 macro zoom lens:

Whitby Pier

Abbey over Whitby old town

Pictures taken with the Zuiko 50mm f1.8 lens:

Some evidence of vignetting, but not too much.

Westleton church, Suffolk

Westleton church, Suffolk

Westleton church, Suffolk