Olympus OM-2 Profile

Olympus OM-2 camera profile. Discusses some of the functions and features of the OM-2 camera.

Starting along the top, left to right.
rewind crank. Feels substantial. Solid metal grooves.
mode selector. manual is obvious. Off shuts off the light meter. Leaving this on will drain the battery over time. I understand it will drain faster if stored in brighter conditions. Putting the camera in auto makes this an “aperture priority” camera. There is no automatic setting on these Zuiko lenses, so you will always be selecting your aperture. The “check” feature located at the top is for checking your battery charge. The red LED will illuminate if your battery is full. If you’re losing power, the light will blink, and at this point the shutter may not fire at all. It’s a good idea to keep your camera at the “off” position when not in use, and check the battery regularly when out shooting.
If your battery dies and your mirror locks up, there is a special way to reset the camera. That’s done by putting your shutter speed into the BULB position, which also acts as an automatic reset. Turn the camera to 1-second, and push in the tiny button labeled B underneath the camera, and then finish turning the shutter speed dial, and you can see that RESET is selected underneath the camera. That’s all. You will now have functionality returned to your camera.
hot shoe. This particular camera came without a hot shoe. I’ve seen them online with and without the hot shoe attachment. I wasn’t planning on using flash with this system so I wasn’t too concerned that this camera didn’t have one. You can buy them separately for this the OM-2 but I understand they are not easy to find, and are probably better off buying a camera that comes with one. If you are considering one, this camera was the first camera to use TTL direct metering system for film called “Auto-Dynamic metering.” It actually measured light reflecting off the surface of the film.
Exposure compensation dial. This can be adjusted from +2 all the way to -2. Moves in 3rd-stops. It’s not very easy to move so you won’t knock it accidentally. Inside of that is the film-speed selector. It can be changed by lifting the dial and turning. What I like about the way this system works is that whenever you change the film speed, you have to return the exposure compensation back to 0. This would be helpful for students because it forces you to think about the relationship between ISO and exposure. You can set the ISO from 25 all the way up to 1600.
Next is your shutter release button and film advance lever. I love the way this camera sounds. It’s very mechanical, and I enjoy that sort of thing. The advance lever is all metal and feels very stable when I use it. I recently broke the one on my Yashica FX-7 which had a plastic lever, and was probably not meant to stand the test of time. This Olympus, however, is meant to stand the test of time. This camera is a tank. I am clumsy and I’ve dropped this camera twice onto a hard surface, and it still functions perfectly.