The Double Digit OM Cameras. Olympus made two lines of Cameras, their professional single digit range OM1, OM2, OM3 & OM4 with some variations. The other range were their cheaper midrange consumer models OM10, OM20 (OMG), OM30 (OMF) & the OM40 (OMPC). Just like the single digit models one did not replace the other, The OM10 was produced for the entire production run of all the double digit OMs with the others being added and produced concurrently. Over the late summer & Fall I took all of them out for some hikes on Mt Hood to see how they compared with each other.

The OM40: 1985 - 1987. In 1985 Olympus released the last of the “double digit” OMs, the OM40 (OMPC in the US). Unlike the OM20 & OM30 which really were quite minor upgrades on the superb OM10 the OM40 brought a lot of new things to the table, some of it good some of it bad! Some say the OM40 is metal covered with a rubberized plastic, others say it’s mostly plastic designed to look like metal. It’s first painted with bronze colored paint then black paint. This is so that when the black wears off the corners it replicates that brass patina of so many cameras. The only thing being, it’s not patina but bronze paint on plastic! But now for the good points, for the time it really was a sophisticated camera bringing several new features to the table. As well as Auto (Aperture Priority Mode) and Manual the camera came with Program Mode where the camera choses both the Aperture and the shutter speed. It also came with Auto DX coding but with manual override. Not only did it come with the Olympus sophisticated TTL Direct OTF (Off the Film Metering) in Auto Mode. It also came with a brand new ESP (Electro Sensitive Metering) Where the camera’s sophisticated (for the time) electronics worked hard to prioritize correct exposure of the photo subject. ESP was pretty revolutionary which is probably why Olympus put it on a switch that you could turn on & off! While I’ve been pretty unimpressed with the OM20 & ON30 I do like the OM40! It does not have the class & style of the OM10 but to be honest it may well be a better camera.