BTW, was the Olympus's built-in flash actually part of some kind of slide-on grip for the camera? I know it was located over on the side (above the grip?)
And I think Pentax's SF1 was not only the first RTF flash on a 35mm SLR, but the first built-in TTL flash as well. Does that mean the Olympus OM77AF's flash was just auto? Manual?
Joe
Well, several things, I assume. Olympus released the OM77 in 1986, targeted as an amateur camera. Olympus hessitated to make anything that came even close to "professional grade", having the attitude of "Bah - AF is just for amateurs, pros know how to focus manually better than any AF system". And so, they were quickly taken over by C*n*n and N*k*n, who took both pros and AF seriously. I always maintain, that an AF version of the OM4 would have kicked some serious ass, however that never happened.
Nevertheless, the OM77 was so underspeced that many amateurs (such as myself) found it to be too lacking to be usefull. It came, for instance, without DX film speed override or exposure compensation, without a fully-manuel mode etc.
The hessitation to consider the pro marked a target area for AF also caused Olympus to never release any serious AF lenses (IIRC, no primes longer than 50mm were released as Zuiko AFs and only moderately bad zooms could get to about 200mm). So to use good glass, I would have to still do manual focus. By the way, with non AF lenses, no viewfinder info available and only apeture priority exposure available. In that context, an OM10 would be a better camera :)
So Olympus released their AF camera targed at amateurs, never released any good glass for it and furthermore ensured that when using it with MF-glass, it would be on par with (but more cumbersome) their lowest-level body, the OM10.
The biggest innovation from Olympus with the OM77 was, that it was the first body to come with a build-in flash....
Sorry 'bout the long OT post. I am still a zuikoholic, although I have added a healthy amount of pentaxianism to my medical journal....
--thomas
