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

Olympus OM-4

Olympus · Olympus OM mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 1983

Also known as: OM4 · OM-4Ti · OM-4T · OM-4 Ti · OM4Ti · OM4T · オリンパスOM-4 · オリンパスOM-4Ti · オリンパス OM4

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
OM-4 Olympus OM 1983–1987 — No figure published
OM-4Ti, champagne (OM-4T in the United States) Olympus OM 1986–2002 — No figure published
OM-4Ti, black (OM-4T black in the United States) Olympus OM 1989–2002 — No figure published
  1. No production figure has been published for the OM-4 or for either OM-4Ti finish.
  2. The champagne OM-4Ti's launch is dated July 1986 by the Olympus museum page and 1986 by Wikipedia, against 1987 from camera-wiki, Mike Eckman, Thomas Eisl and Kosmo Foto; the black body is April 1989 by the museum page and 1990 by Wikipedia. The maker's own dates are adopted, and the year-later dates read like the dates the cameras reached export markets.
  3. The end of production is 2002 by Wikipedia, Eckman and Eisl and 2003 by camera-wiki and Michael Allan-Wood. 2002 is the year Olympus ended the OM system and is adopted here.
  4. The weights are Wikipedia's, 540g and 510g. Eckman weighed an OM-4 body at 545g. Thomas Eisl gives the finder as 97% coverage with built-in dioptre correction; camera-wiki confirms the dioptre correction but no second source gives the coverage figure, so it is left out of the finder table.
  5. The battery drain and its fix rest on reviewers rather than on anything from Olympus: Eckman and Allan-Wood both say the OM-4 drains its cells and the OM-4Ti does not. The 30-second beep test for the revised circuit is a single reader's comment on Eckman's page.
  6. Super FP sync: Wikipedia describes the F280 pulsing its light continuously over 40 milliseconds so the flash covers the whole curtain travel; the Olympus museum page calls the OM-4Ti the first 35mm focal-plane camera in the world to sync flash at every shutter speed. camera-wiki names the low 1/60 X sync as the OM weakness it answered.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Shutter speed ring around the lens mount, with a mechanical B and 1/60 that fire without batteries; every other speed needs the cells
  • SPOT, HI.LIGHT and SHADOW buttons on the top plate and a bar-graph LCD along the bottom of the finder
  • Randomised white checkerboard pattern on the first shutter curtain, read by the off-the-film meter, visible with the back open
  • Integrated hot shoe on the prism, where the OM-1 and OM-2 took a removable shoe

OM-4:

  • Black finish only; aluminium top and bottom covers; OM-4 on the prism housing
  • No Super FP position on the flash mode switch
  • Self-timer lever on the front of the body, which the OM-3 lacks

OM-4Ti, champagne (OM-4T in the United States):

  • Champagne-coloured titanium top and bottom covers and the trim behind the shutter speed dial
  • Super FP position on the flash switch; the F280 flash syncs at any speed up to 1/2000
  • 510g against the OM-4's 540g
  • Engraved OM-4Ti, or OM-4T on bodies sold in the United States

OM-4Ti, black (OM-4T black in the United States):

  • Black-painted titanium covers; otherwise the champagne camera
  • 35mmc's reviewer notes the black paint chips easily, which a champagne body does not show

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder
Fixed eye-level pentaprism with built-in dioptre correction and an LCD bar graph along the bottom of the screen · no rangefinder image
Shutter
horizontal-travel cloth focal plane, electronically controlled · Aperture priority 240s – 1/2000 stepless; manual B, 1s – 1/2000; B and 1/60 mechanical · flash sync X at 1/60; the OM-4Ti adds Super FP sync at any speed to 1/2000 with the F280 flash · self-timer
Film advance
single-stroke lever
Back
hinged
Meter
Two silicon cells: centre-weighted, or a 2% spot (3.3 degrees with a 50mm lens) with up to eight readings stored and averaged; HI.LIGHT shifts a reading +2 EV and SHADOW shifts it -2⅓ EV. Off-the-film reading in automatic. Two 1.5V silver-oxide SR44 cells; Wikipedia records that a 3V 1/3N lithium cell is not recommended.
Motor drive
Compatible — 35mmc's reviewer warns that the winders fail often and that replacement circuit boards are not available.
Weight
540 g
Dimensions
136 × 84 × 50, body only (Wikipedia) mm
Country
Japan
Original price
$685 body only, $785 with the 50mm f/1.8 and $855 with the 50mm f/1.4 (1983, US list, Mike Eckman; Wikipedia gives $685); OM-4Ti 129,000 yen body only, 165,000 yen with the 50mm f/1.4 and case (July 1986, Olympus museum) (today $2,160)
Accessories
F280 Full Synchro flash (Super FP sync, OM-4Ti only) · T-series flashes with TTL off-the-film automation

Where sources disagree

First
  • July 1986 — Olympus museum product page; 1986 — Wikipedia ($770 list), Michael Allan-Wood
  • 1987 — camera-wiki, Mike Eckman, Thomas Eisl, Kosmo Foto

Better supported: 1986

The maker dates it to the month. The 1987 accounts are all secondary and likely record availability outside Japan.

First
  • April 1989 — Olympus museum product page
  • 1990 — Wikipedia, at $1,250 list

Better supported: 1989

Same pattern as the champagne body: the maker's month against a later export-market year.

Last
  • 2002 — Wikipedia, Mike Eckman, Thomas Eisl, Kosmo Foto
  • 2003 — camera-wiki, Michael Allan-Wood

Better supported: 2002

Weight (grams)
  • 540g — Wikipedia
  • 545g — Mike Eckman, weighing a body himself

Better supported: 540g

What reviewers say

History

The OM-4 of 1983 replaced the OM-2n at the top of the OM line and brought the meter that defines the camera. A 2% spot, 3.3 degrees with a 50mm lens, can be read up to eight times with the SPOT button, and the camera averages the readings and shows them on a bar-graph LCD along the bottom of the finder; HI.LIGHT pushes a reading two stops up so a white wall comes out white, SHADOW pulls it two and a third stops down. No camera had done this before. The rest of the body is an OM-2n grown up: a new aluminium casting, weathersealing, an integrated hot shoe, dioptre correction in the finder, a cloth shutter controlled electronically from 240 seconds to 1/2000 in aperture priority with B and a mechanical 1/60 that fire without batteries. It listed at $685 body only in the United States.

The original body drains its batteries. Mike Eckman calls the fault prevalent and Michael Allan-Wood at 35mmc says the same, and both say the OM-4Ti cured it with revised circuitry; the practical advice from Eckman is to take the two SR44 cells out whenever the camera is put away. Nothing from Olympus describes the change, and the one test that circulates, that a serviced body’s meter beep stops after thirty seconds, is a single reader’s comment on Eckman’s page.

The OM-4Ti came in July 1986 by the Olympus museum’s own page, at 129,000 yen body only, and in 1987 by most of the English-language accounts, which is probably when it reached them. The top and bottom covers and the trim behind the speed dial are titanium, finished champagne, and the weight drops from 540g to 510g. The other change was the flash: with the F280, which pulses its light over 40 milliseconds so that it covers the whole travel of the curtains, the camera syncs at any speed up to 1/2000. Olympus calls it the first 35mm focal-plane camera in the world to do so, and it answered the 1/60 X sync that camera-wiki names as the OM’s weak point. In the United States the camera was sold as the OM-4T. A black-painted version followed in April 1989 by the museum page, 1990 by Wikipedia, and in 1997 the American name changed to OM-4Ti when the supply of 4T top covers ran out. Production ended with the OM system in 2002; two sources say 2003.

Identification runs on three things. An OM-4 has aluminium covers in black, no Super FP position on its flash switch, and a self-timer, which is what separates it from an OM-3 with the same meter. An OM-4Ti has titanium covers, the Super FP position, and OM-4Ti or OM-4T engraved on the prism housing; champagne is the first finish and black the second, and black paint chips where champagne does not show it. All three fire B and 1/60 with the cells out and need them for everything else, and all carry a randomised white checkerboard on the first curtain, which is what the meter reads in automatic.

Buying one means testing the electronics, because the mechanics are the easy part. Eckman’s list is the right one: fire B and 1/60 without batteries, then fit cells and confirm every spot button registers on the LCD with its beep, that the speed ring around the mount runs smoothly, and that the display itself is complete. Thomas Eisl sold his mint OM-4Ti because the LCD cannot be replaced without a donor camera and repair needs a technician who knows the circuit, and for anyone who will not use the spot meter or 1/2000 he recommends an OM-1 or OM-2 at half the price. For anyone who will, no production figure exists for any of the three bodies, and the market treats the champagne Ti as the one to have.

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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-4
Olympus OM-4 — Daft racer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Olympus OM-4
OM-4Ti in champagne and in black — Daft racer, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Olympus OM-4
OM-3Ti and OM-4Ti side by side — Wolf4max (Wolfgang Thanner), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $230 across 59 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-18 (middle half $15–$390). First day tracked.

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

Show 83 more listings

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

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

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/2 Macro · Zuiko 85mm f/2 · Zuiko 90mm f/2 Macro

Sources (9)

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.