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Olympus SLR for old man? Anonymous
Hi /p,

My old man used to have an Olympus film SLR camera with a nice portrait lens. He sold it a long time ago but is soon moving to SE Asia where there will be lots of interesting stuff to photograph.

What current/old Olympus SLR (digital is OK too) is the one I should get him for father's day? He is old and does not like whizbang features so much.

Pic is mine but unrelated.
>> Anonymous
Olympus OMG
>> Anonymous
om-2
>> Anonymous
Budget?

Is film or digital preferable, or does it really not matter?

Does it have to be Olympus?
>> Anonymous
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>>189412

Budget: Less than a grand for body and lens, hopefully much less. It's only Father's Day after all.

Brand: Bonus points for Olympus as it allays Fears of Unknown a little bit, since he used to have one.

Format: Bonus points for digital because there is no place to develop film in the boonies of SE Asia. Pic related.

Camera-Specific Properties:Equipment MakeCanonCamera ModelCanon PowerShot SD300Maximum Lens Aperturef/2.8Sensing MethodOne-Chip Color AreaLens Size5.80 - 17.40 mmFirmware VersionFirmware Version 1.00Image-Specific Properties:Image OrientationTop, Left-HandHorizontal Resolution180 dpiVertical Resolution180 dpiImage Created2008:04:26 03:16:09Exposure Time1/250 secF-Numberf/5.6Lens Aperturef/5.6Exposure Bias0 EVFlashNo Flash, AutoFocal Length5.80 mmColor Space InformationsRGBImage Width2272Image Height1704RenderingNormalExposure ModeAutoScene Capture TypeStandardFocus TypeAutoMetering ModeEvaluativeISO Speed RatingAutoSharpnessNormalSaturationNormalContrastNormalShooting ModeFull AutoImage SizeLargeFocus ModeSingleDrive ModeSingleFlash ModeAutoCompression SettingFineMacro ModeNormalSubject Distance65.530 mWhite BalanceAutoExposure Compensation3Sensor ISO Speed128Image Number102-0276
>> Anonymous
Olympus E-420 & the 25mm Pancake
>> Anonymous
>>189419
Have you talked this over with him at all?

Because moving from manual focus probably primes to autofocus zooms might not be what he wants, brands aside- you've got like five picks of primes in the digital Olympus system, good ones if they suit the shooter, but still, and their viewfinders aren't good enough to manually focus with.

And with digital, there's the added problem that digital files look flat without processing. If he doesn't want to learn how to process them he could easily be dissatisfied with the look of his old Kodachrome and Tri-X (or whatever) compared to the new files.

Of course, if there's no where to develop film you don't really have a choice with film versus digital.

Also, that place looks lovely. It also looks like it's probably pretty humid and gets wet a lot. Only weatherproof Olympus body is the E-3.

If you go Olympus, your best bet is the E-520 (E-420 the other guy mentioned is the small version; the E-520 is slightly larger but offers IS, which isn't a whizbang feature but actually helps, especially if his hands aren't as good as they used to be) with the 25/2.8 and either the 35/3.5 or the 50/2, depending on his taste in focal lengths.

Since I don't know if you're from /p/ or elsewhere, I'll just mention that an Olympus DSLR lens is the same as one twice the length for 35mm film, i.e. the 25mm is just like a 50mm and the 35mm is just like a 70mm, etc.
>> Anonymous
>>189426
Oh and I forgot to mention: none of the Olympus primes are wide. The widest you can get is 48mm equivalent, with a huge 24/1.8 Sigma.
>> Anonymous
>>189426
Wow, thanks for the awesome reply! :-)

It sounds like the E-520 will be the way to go. I'm not worried about wide lenses, because my dad shares my boredom when it comes to landscape photography (not that there aren't lots of other uses for wide lenses). Portraits are where it's at.

The idea of my dad toting this camera around during the rainy season is a little worrisome. But he's uh, wise and stuff, so I'm sure he'll make sure it doesn't get soaked. (There is no way I am springing for an E-3)

Also, being a Canon..guy I have never seen pancake lenses before. That is awesome. Yeeerg Wow.

Thanks for the help everybody!