The reason I even own this camera is testament to the existence of a terrible afflication which affects photographers - Gear acquistion Syndrome - it is charachterised by an overwhelming desire to purchase random items of photographic equipement regardless of need/cost - a case in point being the Olympus OM20.

I bought this camera about a year ago, around about the same time as my OM2n, for no other reason that i really liked the OM2n and thought maybe the OM20 would be cool to own as well (it was very cheap - £10 for the body only) and it uses the same OM Zuiko lenses, and yeah it makes sense to try out different cameras in the same line as the one you already own - you know so you can compare and contrast and..... that's how Gear Acquisition Syndrome works...... otherwise (relatively) reasonable people deciding that since they've bought one camera it would kind of make sense to own another one that is not quite the same as the one they've just bought but basically on paper does exactly the same thing as the camera you already own.... and so on ad-nauseum until you have bloody loads of cameras and photographic paraphenalia :) (btw I'm not complaining I actually enjoy having a house strewn with all manner of photographic detritus - this is an other side effect of the afflication)

Never mind all that, "Whats the camera like"? i hear you cry.....well, to put it simply it's a beautifully made plastic box.....the OM20 is a consumer grade 35mm camera which was aimed at a mass market audience so it dispences with the metal chasis, fixtures and fittings of the pro-spec OM2n. Don't get me wrong though I bloody love this camera and that's not my Gear Acquistion Syndrome talking (or maybe it is and I've completely lost my mind... I'll let you decide the answer to that)!

The OM20 was released back in 1984 and in practice (which is the important bit) it is actually a very nice camera to use....the controls are well laid out and you have everything at your finger tips - the unique OM Shutter speed and Aperture controls are present, it has exposure compensation and an ISO dial - it's a more llimited range of shutter speeds/ISO as you'd expect ona consumer level camera but the exposure compensation is a nice bonusfor aperture priority shooting. The camera has a great light meter which is very accurate in my copy and a cinch to use - the LED display in the viewfinder is nice and bright making low light metering simple.

The camera feels nice and solid albeit plasticky and I have no complaints about it - my only gripe with it being that the shutter mechanism sounds like a bag of spanners (apparently it's common to the consumer grade OM20) but it's saving graces are that the metering system is really nicely laid out and easy to use, meaning that it's easy to get well exposed images out of it and of course being an Olympus OM series camera it is designed to use the same awesome Zuiko lenses that my OM2n uses.

I picked mine up about a year ago and I've used it on several occasions in the time The fact that the OM20 body is also cheap to replace means that I'm more likley to chuck it in my bag and take it out and about with me without being too worried over it getting knocked about.