Old 35mm camera question | GTAMotorcycle.com

Old 35mm camera question

DJM

DJM

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In the middle of cleaning out my deceased parents belongings. I just found an old camera of my Dad's, don't ever recall him using it but it's called an Olympus OM-2S Program. Damn think looks like new.

I have no experience with these types of cameras, if there's anyone here with familiarity, is this worth keeping/learning/using?

Is 35mm still used or is it all digital now?
 
DJM said:
In the middle of cleaning out my deceased parents belongings. I just found an old camera of my Dad's, don't ever recall him using it but it's called an Olympus OM-2S Program. Damn think looks like new.

I have no experience with these types of cameras, if there's anyone here with familiarity, is this worth keeping/learning/using?

Is 35mm still used or is it all digital now?
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There's still a market for 35mm cameras but it's not huge. What a traditional film camera teaches you is technique and patience plus if you develop the film yourself there's the whole artistry component. I used to develop my own black and white photos from negatives and that was great fun. Some of my best pictures are also from Kodachrome slides which gives amazing punchy colours etc. Digital is so much easier but it's removed some of the technique because you can take 1001 photos of the same thing and pick the best that way instead of doing it right the first time. Sometimes the lenses are worth keeping for digital though as there are adapters for the old format lenses to be used on digital bodies. Be careful though as you'll lose a lot of the focusing and other connected technology.
 
DJM said:
In the middle of cleaning out my deceased parents belongings. I just found an old camera of my Dad's, don't ever recall him using it but it's called an Olympus OM-2S Program. Damn think looks like new.

I have no experience with these types of cameras, if there's anyone here with familiarity, is this worth keeping/learning/using?

Is 35mm still used or is it all digital now?
Click to expand...

It's a pretty good quality camera. What lens does he have for it? Chemical film is still used by some professionals for specific effects, but the list of developers grows ever more slim. See if you can find the user's manual online. I can't remember all the shutter speeds I used to use. As for value, I'm not so sure there's much of a market second hand. Perhaps that will change in the future, but really these things have gone the way of the Dodo bird. I have an old Minolta that was an excellent camera 30 years ago, but today digital smokes everything.
 
Olympus was never up there in the heyday. If the lenses are Olympus, they might have some value to add to the whole package. Body and basic lens might be worth $60. If you are interested in learning, it's worth keeping.
 
Looks like a 50mm lens attached to the camera and a seperate 75-150mm, Zuiko is the name I think. I'll set this stuff aside and see if it's something I can mess around with.
 
Zuiko is Olympus OEM. Probably a 75-150mm f/4, so worth maybe $50-150 depending on condition and finding a buyer.
 
DJM said:
In the middle of cleaning out my deceased parents belongings. I just found an old camera of my Dad's, don't ever recall him using it but it's called an Olympus OM-2S Program. Damn think looks like new.

I have no experience with these types of cameras, if there's anyone here with familiarity, is this worth keeping/learning/using?

Is 35mm still used or is it all digital now?
Click to expand...

If it's not dead I have a lot of nice 35mm camera equipment I would be happy to sell you. Might even have some darkroom film processing equipment still kicking about.
... except for telephoto my iPhone blows it away
 
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Trials said:
If it's not dead I have a lot of nice 35mm camera equipment I would be happy to sell you. Might even have some darkroom film processing equipment still kicking about.
... except for telephoto my iPhone blows it away
Click to expand...

Well, I think I have enough to get started for now. Maybe I'll throw a roll into it and take some photos of the dogs, see how it turns out.

Amazon has lots of film, just need to figure out what I need. No idea what all those specs mean. I grew up on instant Polaroids...
 
I have a micro 4/3 Olympus and am very happy with the Zuico lenses that I purchased. Definitely give it a shot and play around with the camera to see how you like it. If you don't let me know I might snap up a lens or the whole thing as lenses are always good to have a few extra ones.
 
If you want to get into developing your own film (especially B and W) the equipment can be got hold of pretty cheap these days. Just need a darkroom and the trickiest thing is learning to roll the film into the developing canisters to get your negatives. After that it’s pretty simple. Chemical disposal might be an issue. I used to really enjoy it but I was able to use the University set up so it was a bit easier.
 
Try some black and white film too! I always liked these guys: https://www.ilfordphoto.com

... downtown pawn shops might have some enlargers real cheap along with trays tongs and everything else
 
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I'm giving away all my parents old film gear to a artist friend. A couple minolta SRT-101 with 35,50,200, extension tubes, flash etc polaroids (including a bit of film and flashbulbs) and older stuff like brownies, hawkeyes etc.

Before investing in an SLR system, I wanted to use the minolta glass, but it just didn't make sense financially or operationally.

I used the Minoltas quite a bit back in the day. Switching to digital was a shocking change (manual focusing on the minoltas is telepathic, on a digital SLR it is almost impossible to see if you are in focus).

I just can't see me having the space/time/desire/money to shoot film again.
 
Anyone remember the One Hour Photo booths?

I saw a bunch of used film SLR's at a camera shop somewhere. Going for peanuts.
 
Old 35mm stuff , unless it was really premium in its day has little value. There's a tiny market and specialty processors, but its like fix gear bicycles and Enfield motorbikes, its a pretty small group of different cats.
I did like the fact that my fully mechanical cameras never had dead batteries.
 
I think you are going to waste you time fooling around with it, what taking pictures of the family pet, some scenery, or a family shot. All can be done very well with your iphone. All without the cost of film, developing, and time to purchase and wait for the lab. Plus if you are not familiar with how a manual camera works you may not get any good results. I know it will be a interesting/maybe fun experiment but for this kind of stuff today's tech is way more suitable.

I would just either give it to a student (artist), or sell it cheap to someone who could use it.
At least this way it will get re-purposed and it is better then tossing it.
 
People are buying these old camera for the lenses. Hook up an adapter to it, and it can be used with modern digital cameras. I did just that, in order to get some lenses that would have cost maybe a thousand dollars for $40. Manual focus only mind you, but still...

If you're going to sell it, you may well get more selling the lenses separately, and giving away the camera body.

I've been meaning to try some black and white photography with the actual camera, but I haven't gotten around to it.
 
jeff96 said:
People are buying these old camera for the lenses. Hook up an adapter to it, and it can be used with modern digital cameras. I did just that, in order to get some lenses that would have cost maybe a thousand dollars for $40. Manual focus only mind you, but still...
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That may be a slightly optimistic interpretation. Most of the old stuff is f2.8 or f4 primes (with a few unicorn f1.1). What lenses/system did you put together?
 
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