Olympus OM S zuiko Auto-Zoom 35-70 3.5 - 4.5

One of my photography goals is to have a film camera of every mount, that I can pick up and test lenses on when I need to. In my mind these cameras would be tried and tested, and I'd have a lens or two that I'd keep for them. They'd be manual, if possible, not reliant on batteries, and sturdy. The Olympus camera I picked is an OM-2n, and with it I decided I'd go for a daylight kit that covers the whole range. I skipped primes and traded my way to an Olympus 35-70mm 3.5–4.5 and a 100–200mm OM zoom. I was aiming for one of three versions of this lens which had a fixed maximum aperture of f3.6, but in the end I could only find this one.

If any lens handles well, it's an Olympus, and this one lives up to its name. It's a small thing for a 35–70mm zoom, and at infinity focus it rivals some 50mm 1.8 lenses. Its weight is just as impressive as its size. The aperture ring is placed near the lens mount, which is okay, but I'd prefer the filter-thread aperture ring of other OM lenses. The 49mm filter thread is always a plus for me, and it's the same on the 100–200mm Olympus OM lens I got as a sibling to this one.

Perhaps due to the slow maximum aperture, I was happy using this lens wide open. Vignetting was present, but in my mind that is just another tool in your arsenal of photographic techniques. It's not extreme, but it is noticeable. Stopped down, sharpness is great overall, with no complaints from me. I'd use this lens for my amateur landscape needs. Colors are well balanced, natural, and not in-your-face or noticeably different from what you want to see. It feels as though you record real life, and don't try to get a creative look. It's a modest but good rendition. The close-focus capability is brilliant. With most zoom lenses, you have to set the lens to a specific focal length and then turn the focus ring, limiting you to, for example, 200mm or the long end of the zoom range. This lens has close focus at all focal lengths, giving you the ability to focus down to 0.45m. Bokeh: well, you can get it, but I personally didn't find it exciting or annoying. If you want smooth out-of-focus areas, get a faster or longer lens.

This lens is pretty simple on paper. It's a lens from an age when the kit lens was slowly moving from 50mm primes to 35–70mm zooms. It's a pretty vanilla example in terms of rendition, and that's not a bad thing. I'm happy I chose it for my OM kit, especially considering its low price.