A friend has an OM10 - does it have any value?

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Linda
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I have a friend who now has her sister’s old Olympus OM10. She is going to bring it round at some point; at this stage I am not sure if it is black only, black and silver. Nor do I know which lens. However, with that small amount of info is there a best place to sell this? Would it have any value to a film user? I will chime back in when I know what the lens is - I assume there is a lens!

Thanks for looking.
 
I have a friend who now has her sister’s old Olympus OM10. She is going to bring it round at some point; at this stage I am not sure if it is black only, black and silver. Nor do I know which lens. However, with that small amount of info is there a best place to sell this? Would it have any value to a film user? I will chime back in when I know what the lens is - I assume there is a lens!

Thanks for looking.
The body probably has very little value. Olympus film users are more likely to go for the OM2 or 4 range. However, depending on the lens, that could be of some interest to digital CSC users who like to use legacy lenses.
 
A body starts at under £20 delivered on ebay. Some people are asking as much as £75 for a tested camera with new light seals, lens and manual adapter (without this you are limited to aperture priority mode).
 
Probably the best thing to do is have a look on the completed items section of eBay (which doesn't seem easy these days as you have to look for the little link to the completed item to view the detailed listing, or you get sent to eBay's idea of something similar that's currently for sale!), but do be realistic about the condition of the camera you have, and the ones you are comparing it to; bearing in mind important things like does it need new light seals, do the switches work as they should or are they sloppy, does it have the manual adaptor and is the lens nice and clear with fully working aperture, or is it hazy, full of fungus and the aperture sticks? Also, has it been tested with film recently?

I think condition and full working order is pretty much everything when it comes to the value of a popular make and model of film camera, as potential buyers can afford to wait for a good one to come along - and don't usually have to wait that long either!
 
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If the lens is a 50mm f1.8 then there is a fair chance that it might have a slow aperture by now. Half the ones I have picked up have suffered from it.

Suppose if it's a black body with a manual adapter it might be more desirable? Have seen chrome bodies on ebay in the last week not getting a bid a £12. So many of them about as Olympus shifted masses of them.
 
From a retro-user point of view the black and chrome colour scheme seems more popular than black these days, as I suppose it makes them look more 'vintage'.
 
NO is the short answer monetarily.

The OM10 was a 'relatively cheap' mid range entry level; camera when it was sold brand new in the early 80's. As I recall, they sold new, boxed in the shop with the standard f1.8 Zoiko 50mm lens, for about £90. That was two or three times the price of a boots instamatic, or an East German Practika or even cheaper russian Zenit, probably 'all you need' kit, with filters and tripod and aluminium flight case, so it wasn't a piece of cheap tat by a long stretch, and the advanced for its day Auto-Exposure system was good, and did make it 'almost' as point and press easy to use as an instamatic.
In the right hands, it was a fantastic camera, it could do pretty much what any other camera could, and made it ultra easy thanks to the AE system, and it found a lot of fasvour with new camera buyers, particularly women wanting something a 'bit' better than the 110 instamatic they had in the hand-bag. Was for a while, the best selling camera on the market.
That, though means it was also not particularly valuable. I bought and used them extensively in the early '90's, when more sophisticated AF cameras were starting to enter the market place, mostly because they were CHEAP. I could get an OM10 body at the local camera shop, for perhaps £5, cheper than the price of a better roll of film! As such I didn't have to be precious about it or worry about chucking one around an SU bar or rock-gig!
I still have one... still use one, much battered, and it still works, and I love it! (I will confess that its more used than my single digit OM4... but that is mainly because its batteries are more often not dead! But still!)

Little curiosity of the OM10, when they designed it, they gave no 'manual' over ride to the shutter-speed setting picked and set by the elektrickery; it was a dedicated automatic camera; However the marketing men reckoned that an interchangeable lens SLR should have manual shutter-speeds, so they gave it a little 'manual adapter' that plugged into the front of the camera on an ear-phone socket; they omitted this 'accessory' from the cheapest 'kit' boxes to keep the show-room price down, and many didn't buy the accessory adapter.

Slightly ironic, that when I bought OM10 bodies, second hand in the early 90's, I picked them up for £5 or £10 in the camera shop, second hand, yet in thier glass display case, would be a manual adapter they had probably taken off the camera marked up at £5 or £10 marked up on its own for £10 or £15... IF the camera you are asking about has the accessory adapter, there's a good bet that that, on its own is more valuable than the camera itself;

Meanwhile, most shipped with the f1.8 Zoiko 50-mm lens, which similarly is beloved of the legacy-lens fans, especially MFT aficionados. It was a pretty good lens, and that f1.8 max aperture was pretty fast for its day; again, but markets change, and back in the 90's that was a lens few wanted, most preferring zooms, and many sat on shelves un-used, when they bought a 'short zoom' like a 35-70mm, or wider or longer prime, like a 28mm or 135mm, so they were, thirty years ago, a lens you couldn't even give away; but now, thanks to the legacy lens fans, they are often, like the manual adapter more valuable than the camera... not MUCH, but a bit. An f1.8 Zioko 50 in good order is maybe worth £20-£30, and a camera with one, probably not a lot different.

So MONITERILY all depends exactly what you got in your hand, whether you have the manual adapter, whether its got the f1.8 Zioko 50 on the front; what condition its in; whether the body is battered to heck (like mine!) or in predestine silver and vinal, or if its the rarer all black model; whether its light seals have given out; whether its meter is still in calibration, whether all shutter speeds work, whether the missor has lost its 'semi-silvering', and if it has lens, whether thats chipped, scratched or full of mold etc. BUT, absolutely top book, if it has the adapter, if it has the Zioko, if its in mint condition, and you even have the original shipping box... it only cost £90 new, and even a collecters example like that would struggle to match its original show-room sales price.

PRACTICALLY!!! If you want a film camera to actually USE not stick on a shelf and admire! BRILLIANT things. As my examples of the 90's.. they are wonderful cameras, that do an awful lot and dont beg an awful lot of know how or faff to do it, that, being SOoooo CHEAP... you do NOT have to be preciouse about or afraid of using hard! Which is wonderfuly liberating!

In thirty odd years, I have had the manual adapter on mine, but have to say, if you get to know the AE system, and use the compensation dial around teh ASA setting, you REALLY dont need it, and the AE sysem, able to fire the shutter at 1/3 stop increments, where the manual adapter is calibrated only in full 1-stop increments, the AE stsem is in many ways 'better'.

Lenses, particularly zoom lenses and more so independent branded 'non Zioko' lenses in OM fit are often an absolute bargain; IF you are interested in them. But better and particularly Zoiko lenses aren't so cheap, sought by retro lens fans, collectors and single digit OM1/2/3... and any one daft enough to shoot an OM4... not that I can think of ANY-ONE T-H-A-T stupid!! Lol!

As they WERE when conceived an 'entry' level SLR designed to be pretty point and shoot freindly, they STILL make a fantastic starter film camera, as they are STILL easy to use, and can grow as your know how does a very long way.. and do it without having to invest an enormous amount of money, or suffer the steep learning curve of something thats fully manual and probably begs waving a hand held light meter about... and so cheap? You DONT have to be preciouse about one, who cares if it gets dropped in a muddy puddle... plenty more out there, and all under £50 or so!!!!

So great camera to use... that can make fantastic photos.... NOT a wonderful camera to try sell, where it wont make you rich 'cos old means rare and desirable, its neither rare nor desirable, nor valuable, and never has been... USEFUL is what its was, is and will remain.. at least as long as there's film to go in one.. Maybe batteries too... unlike an OM4 Lol
 
Vintage/classic film SLR camera prices have been on the up for a couple of years now (with some doubling or trebling in price), so do check the latest market values before thinking that 'common' models aren't worth much. Prices aren't that cheap anymore for anything that's mint(ish), boxed and in full working order (light seals replaced, etc.).

A lot of buyers are quite shrewd and know it's better to stump up around £80 or £90 for a mint(ish) OM10 and 50mm lens, in full working order with all the accessories (and perhaps the original box and instructions) than it is to buy a £30 one (which may not actually work properly) and then pay out to have things put right (it would cost around £40 plus postage to have the light seals professionally replaced!).

Also, for a someone like a photography student on a budget, buying a fully working, mintish OM10 + 50mm Zuiko lens, with manual adaptor included, is probably a good move if they want to buy some additional lenses for it. Just compare the price of equivalent Canon or Nikon lenses, and it starts to make a lot of sense. Plus, a silver and black OM10 has got that lovely vintage retro look to it as well, and if used correctly it can deliver some bloody good photos too! So what's not to like? After all, it didn't become one of the best-selling cameras of its era for nothing!
 
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Just AAMOI...is there any difference between the shutter mechanism between an OM10 and OM2?
 
I paid £45 for one off eBay a couple of months ago with a 50mm f1.8 lens, lens hood, filter and half a roll of film inside so you should be able to sell it for around that.Or keep it and shoot some film, I'm having a great time shooting with an old camera
 
Thanks everybody. The current owner is not going to use it for film photography, having a point and shoot compact to replace. Perhaps she might be able to trade it in. Anyway, thanks for everybody’s input.
 
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