Olympus OM-88 (1988)

Name: Olympus OM-88
Brand: Olympus

The Olympus OM-88, sold as the OM-101 in Europe, is a late-1980s 35mm SLR that sits oddly in the OM line. It was introduced around 1988 with a list price of $380 with a 50mm f/2 lens. Olympus positioned it below the OM-77AF as the simpler, more affordable option. As The New York Times (January 1988) noted, the OM-88 is not an auto-focusing SLR like its stablemate. It has a motor that spares you the chore of turning the lens barrel. You focus using a wheel on the body, which drives the lens electronically - Olympus called this "Power Focus." It was aimed at amateurs who wanted minimal controls. When AF/PF lenses are mounted, no aperture or shutter speed information is displayed anywhere on the camera.

The camera was designed primarily for Olympus AF lenses and the 50mm f/2 PF lens, though it also accepts most conventional OM-mount lenses. The catch is that the camera will ignore the adapter and shoot in aperture-priority auto mode. A backlight control button is present, and the manual includes a section on using the OM-88 with current OM system units. The user manual runs 56 pages and was available in English and Spanish.

Documentation on this model is thin. No production years, dimensions, weight, shutter speed range, or battery specifications are recorded in the sources we have. The OM-88 is a motorized-focus SLR that was neither manual nor truly automatic, and it seems to have found its most enthusiastic audience among flea-market hunters and experimenters decades later. One classified listing from 1988 offered a "new, never used, in box w/warranty" example with a 50mm f/1.8 lens for $200. That aperture figure conflicts with the f/2 lens cited in the period press.

- 35mm SLR, Olympus OM mount

- Power Focus (motorized focusing via body-mounted wheel)

- Auto exposure; adapter for manual settings

- 1988 list price: $380 with 50mm f/2 lens

- Also known as OM-101 (European market name)