Back to the Future?

I have always had a thing for innovative products and ideas that Olympus came up with during the 70s and 80s. One that I always liked and have owned for a while is the OM30, not an autofocus camera but one with an In-focus indicator, there are three LED windows in the viewfinder, a green square for in focus and two red pointers telling you which way to turn the focussing barrel.

This was later followed in 1983/4 by the 35-70mm f4 AF lens. I had always been intrigued by how well this set up would work but had never seen one of these lenses for sale until last week. A chance search on a well known auction site came up trumps and with nobody else bidding it was a done deal...

Here is how Olympus described the lens when first produced...

"This stand alone autofocus lens turns any Olympus OM manual focus camera into an autofocus unit.
By pressing the buttons on the side of this lens the built in CCD sensor, microchip and focus motor are activated to detect focus anomalities and correct focus when necessary.
The electronics and AF motor are powered by three AAA size batteries in the built-in battery compartment.
In combination with the OM-30 (OM-F) this lens turns into a dedicated unit that can also be controlled by the shutter release button.
With a Winder or Motor Drive, any OM body, and the M.In-Focus Trigger Cord, Single or Continuous In-Focus Operation can be achieved: the Winder or Motor Drive will fire when (Single AF) or as long as (Continuous AF) correct focus is detected.
This lens has also a normal focusing ring for manual focus; alternatively a Power Focus mode can be selected to control the focus mechanism with two buttons.."

I have now had it for a few days and have put a test roll through the OM30 and all I can say is that I am very impressed with the speed and accuracy of a 30 year old system.

Thanks to the Unnoffical Olympus Sales informationFile for the info.