Olympus OM-1, OM-2,OM-*....

[Clank]

My dad's got an Olympus OM-1 and an OM-2 along with a pile of Olympus lenses. One of the things he mentioned he'd like for Christmas is an OM-10 body, doing some Googling has turned up a whole sequence of OM-* bodies along with this site:

http://brashear.phys.appstate.edu/lhawkins/photo/olympus.faq.html

The only thing it doesn't give is the differentiation between the body numbers, ie: the difference between OM-1 & OM-2, OM-2 & OM-3,..., it just gives the differences between bodies with the same number OM-1 & OM-1N,... That said, what are the differences between 2 & 3, 3 & 4, 4 & 10?

 

[Thrash]

I have an old OM-2 that I swoon over. It's taken some amazing pictures in its lifetime... I know that the difference between the OM-1 and the OM-2 is that the OM-2 has many automatic features, whereas the OM-1 has only manual modes--each shares almost the same exact body. As for the rest of the OM series, I would imagine that they are simply later generation cameras. I think they kept the OM moniker for a long time, so it is a bit of a gamble as to whether the older lenses are compatible with a newer body.

My recommendation if nobody else here knows anything about it is to go to the best camera shop in your area and see what they have to say about it.

 

[CitizenTony]

I had an OM-1 for a long time but finally sold it, and now I miss it. I think Thrash is correct in the naming, kind of like Nikon's F series, I beleive.

 

[emorphien]

I am not all that familiar with the OM camera line, but if you asked on a real photography forum (no offense to this one) you might get some more helpful responses.