Olympus Om-4 Metering with DOF Button?

[benjaminswihart]

Hi, I just bought an Olympus Om-4 and I’m new to the auto exposure/metering feature for film cameras. Do I need to press down the depth of field button on the lens to get the proper light meter reading or will it do it automatically? Confused because light meter level in viewfinder doesn’t change when I adjust the aperture unless I hold down the depth of field button. Thanks!

 

[RAZKY]

Hi, I just bought an Olympus Om-4 and I’m new to the auto exposure/metering feature for film cameras. Do I need to press down the depth of field button on the lens to get the proper light meter reading or will it do it automatically? Confused because light meter level in viewfinder doesn’t change when I adjust the aperture unless I hold down the depth of field button. Thanks!

I'm not familiar with Olympus, but there are several sites from which to download the user's manual:

Olympus Om-4 user's manual - Google Search

 

[benjaminswihart]

I'm not familiar with Olympus, but there are several sites from which to download the user's manual:

Olympus Om-4 user's manual - Google Search

the olympus om-4 manual is notoriously terrible and goes into very little detail. i wasn’t able to find anything to help me

 

[wobe]

Hi, I just bought an Olympus Om-4 and I’m new to the auto exposure/metering feature for film cameras. Do I need to press down the depth of field button on the lens to get the proper light meter reading or will it do it automatically? Confused because light meter level in viewfinder doesn’t change when I adjust the aperture unless I hold down the depth of field button. Thanks!

Hi - First of congratulations on your purchase (I’m a little biased to Olympus…).

To answer your question, no you do not need to press the DOF button to meter. (Regarding the manual, it would say to do this if it was necessary)

It’s there just to give you a visual preview of the shot before taking it

 

[benjaminswihart]

Hi - First of congratulations on your purchase (I’m a little biased to Olympus…).

To answer your question, no you do not need to press the DOF button to meter. (Regarding the manual, it would say to do this if it was necessary)

It’s there just to give you a visual preview of the shot before taking it

thank you for the response! unfortunately i believe there is something wrong with my camera because it meters every shot as if the aperture was set to f/1.8 (wide open) which is why I was confused. changing the aperture doesn’t affect the exposure of the image which i believe to be an issue

 

[wobe]

Hi - Just so I'm clear on my understanding - Are you saying that the reading you are getting from the camera meter is the same as an external meter (eg. phone app) would give you with the aperture at 1.8 regardless what actual aperture you have set on the lens and presumably therefore if you change aperture the meter 'diamond' in the camera viewfinder does not move up and down the display?

First question would be are you sure the aperture is working on the lens, you could have a sticky aperture - have you tried another lens?

Second - I am not sure how familiar you are with the spot metering system on these cameras but if you press the SPOT button then 1 diamond will lock in place on the meter and will not move regardless of light source changes, another diamond will appear which will move - you press SPOT again to lock that etc. Just want to make sure you are not accidentally hitting SPOT and locking the meter diamond!

 

[benjaminswihart]

Hi - Just so I'm clear on my understanding - Are you saying that the reading you are getting from the camera meter is the same as an external meter (eg. phone app) would give you with the aperture at 1.8 regardless what actual aperture you have set on the lens and presumably therefore if you change aperture the meter 'diamond' in the camera viewfinder does not move up and down the display?

First question would be are you sure the aperture is working on the lens, you could have a sticky aperture - have you tried another lens?

Second - I am not sure how familiar you are with the spot metering system on these cameras but if you press the SPOT button then 1 diamond will lock in place on the meter and will not move regardless of light source changes, another diamond will appear which will move - you press SPOT again to lock that etc. Just want to make sure you are not accidentally hitting SPOT and locking the meter diamond!

I believe you understand correctly.

Firstly, yes, I tried two different Olympus lenses with the camera and I know the aperture blades are functioning properly due to testing with the depth of field preview button which engages the blades. Secondly, I’ve tried using both spot and the normal metering modes and the results are about the same.

Just to clarify the situation, if I metered the same exact shot with the same lighting at both f/16 and f/1.8, the camera sees it as the same and the meter shows the same setting for both aperture settings. Nothing changes on the meter if I adjust the aperture at all. (Not sure about how it actually affects shutter speed when taking photos)

I only just started shooting on this camera yesterday and today so I cannot say how any of the photos actually turn out.

Let me know if you need any more information, I appreciate the help

 

[wobe]

In that case it certainly sounds like a meter problem and time for a visit to your trusted repair shop.
For now use a phone app/external meter - its a shame though because the main strength of these cameras is the fantastic multi spot metering system which you will not be able to use.

Hope you did not pay top $ for the unit..

 

[benjaminswihart]

In that case it certainly sounds like a meter problem and time for a visit to your trusted repair shop.
For now use a phone app/external meter - its a shame though because the main strength of these cameras is the fantastic multi spot metering system which you will not be able to use.

Hope you did not pay top $ for the unit..

I purchased it for around $170 on ebay and the seller offered a free return so I’ll probably take that offer up and just buy a different (tested) one because I absolutely love the camera overall. I’d hate to switch to another brand and have to sell my lenses as well.

Thank you for confirming my suspicions about an issue in camera though. I thought I was going crazy when I tried to take a photo in the sunlight and my camera told me it was too overexposed while my external light meter told me to use f/16 1/125 haha

 

[cgw]

Maybe?

Olympus OM-4 & OM-4Ti (Please read TAG rules)

Dedicated to a great series of classic camera's: the Olympus OM-4 and its titanium successor the OM-4Ti (and OM-4T). These camera's must be considered to be the best 35mm SLR's of all time. They are well made, compact, and sport a great metering system...

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Worst case? Friends are having no trouble finding 70s-80s SLRs with "issues."