OM Systems’ latest Four Thirds mirrorless camera is the OM-3, a retro-inspired camera that takes much of its cues from Olympus’s classic film SLRs.
The 20MP camera has received some positive reports from the camera press, with TechRadar calling it “the Fujifilm rival we needed” and DPReview noting its “blistering shooting speeds and relatively reliable autofocus” will be of particular interest to travel photographers.
It is also, of course, not the first camera from the Olympus (now OM System) stable to sport the OM-3 title; it borrows both the name and also much of its retro styling from a camera released more than 40 years ago.
The original OM-3 was released in 1983 – an all-manual SLR with a mechanical shutter and multiple spot metering. It was built in relatively small numbers compared to other OM cameras and remains a much sought-after camera nearly four decades after production ceased.
The OM-3 was a camera caught between the two separate ends of the OM camp. Like the original OM-1, released in 1973, it was a camera with manual shutter speeds and a mechanical shutter. Like the OM-4 also released in 1983, the OM-3 featured a revolutionary multi-spot metering mode where up to eight different measurements could be taken in a 2% central spot and then calculated to achieve the correct exposure.
Being a mechanical camera, the OM-3 wouldn’t choose that shutter speed itself, unlike the automatic exposure OM-4. But at least the photographer was armed with the information they needed to achieve the correct exposure.
The camera is sleek and minimalist, lacking features like a self-timer, and with a black body that looks a touch more modern than the standard chrome-and-black OM-2s and 2s of the decade before. The fastest shutter speed is 1/2000 and the camera can be used with films from ISO 6 up to 3200.
This halfway house between the medical and the modern didn’t appear to work in the original OM-3’s favour. Camera-Wiki, in its profile of the camera, says: “It did not sell in great quantities, and was dropped in 1986. People wanting a mechanical camera would rather choose the OM-1n, available at least until 1987, or the OM-4 if requiring the multi-spot metering system.
“In consequence, it is scarce and the secondhand asking price greatly exceeds that of the OM-4.”
The OM-3 would be resurrected in 1995 in a more successful model called the OM-3Ti. Like the stablemate OM-4Ti, this version sported top and bottom covers made of titanium. Like the OM-4Ti, the camera featured TTL flash automation, a “through the lens” flash metering system that automatically adjusted the power of the flash depending on the amount of light in the scene.
This version of the camera would soldier on until 2002, when Olympus ditched its last high-end film SLR bodies.
The original OM-3 has, ironically, risen in value after film’s heyday; you can expect to pay 50% more for an OM-3 than the technologically more advanced OM-4. In the UK, that works out to around £500 body only.
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Clicking on the link at the end of your article showed me the cheapest OM-3 body at about 500 USD. I consider myself fortunate then, to have recently acquired one on Ebay for about 300 USD. Except for a few minor marks is in excellent condition and appears to operate flawlessly. I say “appears to” because I have just put in its maiden roll of C-41 in for processing at a local lab. I have a refurbished M-1 (not OM-1) that operates so smoothly and quietly that it puts all others to shame, but this is a close 2nd. Very enjoyable to operate and use. Love the spot metering.