BLAST FROM THE PAST: Olympus OM30 + Zuiko AF lens – Launched: 1983, Price at launch: £177 (with f/1.8 manual focus lens), Guide price now with AF lens: £100 (recent auction sale)
First there was the Olympus OM-1 in 1972, the camera that brought a new compact design to high-end 35mm single lens reflexes (SLRs). It was followed by the OM-2, OM-3 and OM-4. Then, in 1979, Olympus launched a series of SLRs aimed more at the average consumer with the OM10, OM20, OM30 and OM40. Of these, the OM30 was the star of the show.
It’s a quality aperture priority plus manual control camera with off-the-film metering. What makes it different is the addition of an electronic focusing aid. With a manual focus lens attached, the viewfinder shows two, red, arrow-shaped LEDs in the viewfinder which flash right and left to indicate the direction to turn the focusing ring. When accurate focus is attained, a green LED appears between the other two and a ‘beep’ is emitted. The camera runs on five LR44 batteries.
Soon after the OM30’s launch, things got even better when Olympus introduced the Zuiko Auto-Zoom 35-70mm autofocus lens, specially made for the camera. There had been add-on AF lenses before, initially from Ricoh and Canon and more notably from Pentax, whose ME F in 1981 was the first purpose-made autofocus 35mm SLR. Like these earlier AF lenses, the Zuiko is large and bulky with the focusing mechanism in the lens. But, unlike its predecessors, autofocus is controlled from the camera body, rather than with buttons on the lens itself. With the camera’s mode switch set to ‘auto’, first pressure on the shutter release adjusts focus, then more pressure fires the shutter. The lens runs on three AAA batteries.
The OM30 brought a new ease of use to AF SLRs, but its reign didn’t last long. Two years later, the Minolta 7000 took the autofocus functions out of the lens, put them in the camera body and introduced a much more ergonomically designed camera that became the new way forward.
What’s good
Even without its AF lens, still a well-specified, beautifully-made camera
What’s bad
The AF function is slow, the lens is rare and often unreliable
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