Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Olympus OM-2

Olympus · Olympus OM mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 1975

single source, unconfirmed

Also known as: OM2 · OM-2n · OM-2N · OM2n · OM-2 MD · OM-2N MD · OM-2MD · オリンパスOM-2 · オリンパス OM2 · オリンパスOM-2N

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
OM-2 (and OM-2 MD) Olympus OM 1975–1979 — —
OM-2n (OM-2N MD) Olympus OM 1979–1984 — —
  1. Olympus's own museum page prices the OM-2 at 79,500 yen body only in November 1975; Japanese Wikipedia's price list gives 76,000 yen for the chrome body and 80,000 for black. Both are recorded, the range is carried in the price fields, and no dated US or UK list price was found in a source that could be read.
  2. The photokina 1974 prototype rests on mir.com.my alone. Olympus's museum page and Japanese Wikipedia both date the sale to November 1975, and Maitani's lecture says simply that the OM-2 was launched in 1975.
  3. No production figure has been published for the OM-2 in any version, and no serial number breaks have been recorded by any source read here.
  4. The reset mechanism matters when buying. On the OM-2 a flat battery can leave the mirror up and the camera dead until fresh cells go in and the ring is turned to RESET; the OM-2n moved this to the power lever. The eSIF site also notes that the OM-2's habit of holding the shutter open when a flash is too weak drains the cells, which is why the OM-2n fixes the T-flash speed at 1/60 instead.
  5. Weight: 520g from the 1979 Olympus sales information and Wikipedia; Mike Eckman weighed his at 525g. The maker's figure is adopted.
  6. The OM-2 MD badge is not a variant. Wikipedia's account is that all OM-2 bodies had the motor-drive coupling and cover, and that the plate appeared on some late-1970s bodies without a documented change beneath it, so it is recorded as an identification note on the OM-2 entry rather than a separate row.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The OM-1 body with a four-position lever on the top plate (off, manual, auto, check) where the OM-1 has a meter switch
  • Exposure compensation dial on the top plate in place of the OM-1's plain film-speed dial
  • A printed pattern of white blocks on the first shutter curtain, visible with the back open, off which the meter reads
  • No mirror lock-up lever on the front

OM-2 (and OM-2 MD):

  • OM-2 on the front plate with no N; an MD plate at the four o'clock position on some bodies and not others
  • A RESET position on the shutter speed ring next to B, used to free the mirror after a flat battery
  • Accessory Shoe 2 or 3 on the prism: a single threaded post, or a post with one small recess
  • Advance lever with slim, sharp edges

OM-2n (OM-2N MD):

  • A smaller upper-case N beside the model number on the front plate and on the top plate left of the prism
  • RESET engraved beside CHECK on the power switch; the reset position is gone from the shutter ring
  • Two small contact recesses behind the prism above the eyepiece for Accessory Shoe 4, plus the large threaded recess
  • Re-contoured advance lever with rounded edges

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder
Fixed eye-level pentaprism, interchangeable focusing screens changed through the mount; shutter-speed scale on auto, match needle on manual. · 0.92× magnification · 97% coverage · no rangefinder image
Shutter
horizontal-travel cloth focal plane, electronically timed, air-damped mirror without lock-up · Auto: about 60s (OM-2) or 120s (OM-2n) to 1/1000, stepless. Manual: B, 1s – 1/1000 on the ring around the mount · flash sync FP/X switch at the PC socket; X at the accessory shoe; TTL off-the-film flash automation with the Quick Auto 310 (OM-2, Shoe 2) or T-series flashes (Shoe 3 on the OM-2, Shoe 4 on the OM-2n) · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever, 150° throw, or several short strokes
Back
hinged, removable; takes Recordata Backs and the 250 Film Back 1
Meter
Two systems. For the finder needle, two CdS cells in the prism, centre-weighted, EV 1.5–17 at ASA 100 with a 50mm f/1.2. For automatic exposure, two silicon blue cells at the base of the mirror box reading the patterned first curtain at fast speeds and the film itself at slow ones, EV -5.5 to 18 (OM-2) or -6.5 to 18 (OM-2n) at ASA 100 with an f/1.2. ASA 12–1600, compensation ±2 EV. Two 1.5V silver-oxide SR44 (EPX76) cells; nothing works without them.
Motor drive
Motor Drive 1, Motor Drive 2, Winder 1, Winder 2 — 5 frames a second with Motor Drive 1 at 1/500 and above.
Designed by
Maitani Yoshihisa (米谷美久) — led the design; the off-the-film metering was his idea of collecting the light that reaches the film
Weight
520 g
Dimensions
136 × 83 × 50 (W × H × D), body only, from the 1979 Olympus sales information mm
Country
Japan
Original price
79,500 yen body only, November 1975 (Olympus's own museum page); Japanese Wikipedia lists 76,000 yen chrome, 80,000 yen black, 94,500 yen with the 50mm f/1.8 (today ¥155,000–¥162,000)
Accessories
Motor Drive 1 and 2 · Winder 1 and 2 · Quick Auto 310 flash (OM-2 with Shoe 2) · T32 and T20 flashes (Shoe 3 on the OM-2, Shoe 4 on the OM-2n) · Recordata Backs 1–4 · 250 Film Back 1

Where sources disagree

Original price
  • 79,500 yen body only — Olympus's museum page for the OM-2
  • 76,000 yen chrome body, 80,000 yen black, 94,500 with 50mm f/1.8, 102,500 with 50mm f/1.4, 118,500 with 55mm f/1.2 — Japanese Wikipedia

Possibly a list price against a later revised price, or a body-only figure against a body-with-case figure as on the OM-1; neither source says. Left unresolved and carried as a range.

What reviewers say

History

The OM-2 is the OM-1 body with an electronic shutter and one genuinely new idea inside it. Maitani’s account is that he wanted to measure the light that actually hits the film, so the OM-2 carries two silicon blue cells at the base of the mirror box looking at the film gate. At fast speeds they read a printed pattern of blocks on the first shutter curtain, which Olympus calibrated by collecting 35mm film stocks from around the world and measuring how much light they reflect; at slow speeds they read the film itself and close the shutter when enough light has arrived. That is why the OM-2 could run stepless automatic exposures of a minute or more and why it could meter a flash through the lens at ten centimetres from the subject, the first camera to do either. A separate pair of CdS cells in the prism drives the finder needle.

Olympus’s museum page dates the sale to November 1975 at 79,500 yen for the body; Japanese Wikipedia’s price list says 76,000 yen chrome and 80,000 black, and the two are recorded side by side. Outwardly the camera is an OM-1 with a four-position lever on the top plate (off, manual, auto, check), an exposure compensation dial where the OM-1 has a plain film-speed dial, and no mirror lock-up. The MD plate that appears on some OM-2 bodies and not others is not a version marker; Wikipedia’s account is that every OM-2 had the motor-drive coupling and cover.

The OM-2n of 1979 is the version to look for. It took Accessory Shoe 4 with its two extra contacts behind the prism, put a flash-ready and flash-confirmation LED in the finder for the T-series flashes, fixed the shutter at 1/60 with those flashes instead of holding it open to top up a weak burst, added a compensation warning flag and a direct contact for the Recordata back, and guaranteed a 120-second automatic exposure at any film speed. It is marked with a small N beside the model name on the front and top plates and has a rounded advance lever. The other change is a practical one: on the OM-2 a flat battery can leave the mirror up, and the camera is freed by fitting fresh cells and turning the shutter ring to a RESET position next to B; the OM-2n moved RESET to the power lever, beside CHECK.

Buying one, the batteries come first. Two SR44 silver-oxide cells run everything, and without them nothing happens at all, which is the reason every reviewer gives for preferring the OM-1 as a second body. The finder needle on manual and the shutter-speed scale on auto should both move; an OM-2 stuck with its mirror up is usually a battery problem and not a broken camera, but a seller may not know that. The prism foam fault of the OM-1 applies here too. Shoe 4 does not fit the earlier body and Shoes 2 and 3 do not fit the OM-2n, so a body sold with the wrong shoe has lost its TTL flash.

Olympus published no production figure for either version, and the two dated prices from Japan do not agree with each other.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Olympus OM-2
Olympus OM-2 with the Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 — Lex Tollenaar, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain (released by the copyright holder))
Olympus OM-2
Olympus OM-2 with the Zuiko 24mm f/2.8 — Dave Rogers, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Olympus OM-2
Olympus OM-2n with the Zuiko 21mm f/3.5 — Ashley Pomeroy, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $170 across 26 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $99–$220). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 40 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-18. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Olympus OM-1 · Olympus OM-10 · Olympus OM-2000 · Olympus OM-2 Spot/Program · Olympus OM-3 · Olympus OM-4

Lenses for this body: Zuiko 100mm f/2 · Zuiko 21mm f/2 · Zuiko 24mm f/2 · Zuiko 28mm f/2 · Zuiko 28mm f/2.8 · Zuiko 35mm f/2 · Zuiko 50mm f/1.2 · Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 · Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 · Zuiko 50mm f/2 Macro · Zuiko 55mm f/1.2 · Zuiko 85mm f/2 · Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro

Sources (12)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.