Author: David

If you’re choosing between the Olympus OM-1 and the OM-2n, the decision is not really about specifications. It is about how you want to shoot. On paper, they sit close together. In practice, they feel quite different. Both are excellent cameras. Both can produce exactly the same kind of image. Both belong to the same superb Olympus OM system. What separates them is not image quality. It is pace, handling, and the experience of using them. The OM-1 is the more mechanical, deliberate camera. The OM-2n is the more flexible and practical one. That is what actually matters. Quick answer…

(Even If Every Instinct Tells You To) Olympus OM cameras are famously tough. Mechanical, compact, beautifully engineered, and still shooting happily forty-plus years after they left the factory. That toughness is deceptive. Because while most of an OM body will tolerate decades of use, dust, knocks, and the occasional questionable life choice, there are a few parts that look innocent, obvious, even cleanable… and absolutely are not. If you’re new to OM cameras, or you’ve just started tinkering, this article exists to save you from at least one unnecessary “oh sh*t” moment. Ask me how I know. The Mirror (Why…

In Daido Moriyama’s Near Equal, photography is stripped back to instinct. There’s something slightly uncomfortable about watching him work. Not because it’s chaotic – but because it ignores almost everything you’re told photography should be. Images are blurred.Contrast is pushed hard.Frames feel loose, sometimes even accidental. And yet it holds together. Moriyama isn’t trying to make perfect photographs. He’s reacting to the world as it moves – quickly, instinctively, without hesitation. What you get is something raw, but honest. Not polished, not refined, but real. Letting Go of Control Most photographers tighten up when they pick up a camera. Moriyama…

From the outside, Peter Anderson’s studio looks modest. A garage door on a quiet street in Maze Hill gives little away. Peter meets me there and opens it. The space begins to reveal itself. Inside, a narrow corridor lined with large prints draws you forward. Faces line the walls, large prints, forming a quiet procession of decades past. You walk its length, pull back a curtain, and the space opens suddenly into something far larger than the exterior suggests. A studio unfolds. Additional rooms branch off. The front of the space feels organised and deliberate. Deeper in, the darkroom carries…

I went to London to photograph art galleries. That was the plan, at least. The forecast was dreadful. Sheets of rain. The sort that makes sensible people stand under doorways pretending they meant to check their phone. I’d told myself that if it was bucketing down I’d retreat indoors – Tate, National Gallery, somewhere civilised. Instead, I got off the train, looked at the sky, and decided to lean into it. This was largely the fault of a Banksy book and far too many late-night documentaries about Banksy, King Robbo and London’s long-running wall wars. I’d filled my head with…

Guest OM Story – words and photographs by Laurie Vaughan. I was in Liverpool for a conference and took the Olympus SP with me. It was a completely new city to me. It was a camera I had never used, and the intention was simply to learn the SP’s ability in a new place. First Impressions of the Olympus SP When I first handled the SP, it felt very much like an OM-1 but with a fixed lens. It immediately came across as a quality camera, one with a strong reputation that clearly precedes it. Using the rangefinder required a…

Sharpness problems explained simply, and how to fix them with Olympus OM cameras. If you are new to film, you have probably had this moment already. You get your scans back.You look at the photos.You zoom in, even though you should not.And suddenly everything looks… soft. Before you blame the lens, the lab, the camera, or the universe, here are the five real reasons film photos look soft for beginners, and how to fix each one quickly. Missed Focus (The Number One Cause) Manual focus takes practice.Film focusing screens are small.The split prism is fast, but unforgiving. When focus is…

Film is a living, ageing thing. Even when it’s sitting quietly in a box, it’s still changing. Heat, time, and humidity all have a say in how your negatives will look in the future. Store film well and it stays predictable, clean, and flexible. Store it badly and you invite fog, colour shifts, loss of contrast, and that vague sense of “why does this look a bit off?” This isn’t about being precious or obsessive. It’s about control. Good storage buys you time and consistency, whether you shoot fresh stock every week or hoard film like it might be discontinued…

Some photographers build reputations.Patrick Lichfield was born into one, and then surpassed it. Aristocrat, charmer, fashion photographer, Royal Family insider, Lichfield was one of those rare figures who made photography feel effortless. But beneath the glamour and social ease was a working photographer with a simple truth: the camera only mattered if it served the moment. That is why the Olympus OM system suited him so well.Light. Fast. Elegant. Unobtrusive.A camera for someone who photographed people who did not have time to be photographed. Yet what made him special was not access. It was connection.And connection is the core of…

I didn’t buy this Olympus OM-10 because I needed another OM body. I bought it because I spotted a 50mm f/1.4 clinging to a badly written eBay listing and recognised the familiar danger: something valuable hiding in plain sight. Forty-two pounds and fifty pence later, a box arrived containing fungus, dead light seals, a Quartz Data Back nobody likes to admit owning, and a camera that had clearly been left alone for a very long time. After cleaning it properly and replacing what time had reduced to sticky foam, there was only one honest thing left to do. Load a…