1. The First Clue
A recent Yahoo auction for a professional grade system Olympus OM-2n body (plus lens) provided the first clue . . .
 Olympus OM-2N camera with Olympus OM-System Zuiko 1.8 50mm lens. This camera is in very good condition. The lens is extremely clean and sharp, and all functions work as they should. This camera comes with the manual as well as automatic use. I will contact the buyer within 3 days of auction close. Payment is expected within 10 days of the end of the auction. Cash, money order, personal check, and cashiers checks are accepted. Shipping to be paid by winning bidder. Most items mailed via US Mail are sent within one day of payment. Shipping and Handling will cost $12.00. Email any questions to Bwilliamsgtwn@hotmail.com |
Eagle-eyed "GeoW" of the [unofficial] The OLYMPUS Mailing List posted the following about this auction:
"This is an auction at Yahoo auctions.
http://page.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/auction/58674883?
Go to the link to questions and answers where you will see my
question as well as the answer. I am confused.GeoW"
Indeed! Anyone knowledgeable about the Olympus OM system bodies would be confused. The photographs appear to be of the top and bottom of a consumer grade non-system OM-10 body with the accessory Manual Adapter installed (plus a standard lens). Compare the photographs in the auction posting with these of an OM-10, the accessory Manual Adapter for the OM-10, and an OM-2n in Hans van Veluwen's unofficial electronic Sales Information File (eSIF):
Is "GeoW" confused?
Is the seller, "branwi34,"confused??
Has "GeoW" stumbled across a rare and highly valuable camera body within the OM system????
2. Seller Claims Olympus Has SECRET Wyoming Camera Factory!
Upon investigating the auction to see this wondrous camera for myself, I discovered the seller claims Olympus is operating a factory in Wyoming and the camera's provenance traces to it as a special prototype of the OM-2n created from an OM-10 in the early 1990's! See the answer posted by "branwi34."
|
||||||||||||||
OM-2n production began in 1979 and ended in 1984. OM-10 production began in 1979 and ended in 1987. Have we now learned the OM-2n prototype(s) were created at least six years after OM-2n, and three years after OM-10 production ended? Have we stumbled across a Top Secret, highly innovative product development process used by Olympus? Is this the primary method and source of its fine camera designs, unparalleled by any other manufacturer? Yoshihisa Maitani, creator of the OM system, may be the only person who knows the real answer.
3. The Great Divide Basin: Suspicious Wyoming Factory Spotted and Photographed
During a recent November "road trip" on the eastbound side of Interstate Highway 80 across southern Wyoming, this reporter spotted an odd factory operation through the early morning ground fog near the Great Divide Basin. Touted by some as the Jim Bridger Power Plant, there was no visible access road, no visible rail siding, no visible landing strip or heliport, no vehicles and no people, not even a cluster of single-wide house trailers (the first sign of civilization in rural USA) or any cattle! This reporter stopped and photographed with wonder that a major power plant would be located in the desolate high plains of the Great Divide Basin nowhere near a city, town or any sign of civilization. After this reporter processed the film and projected the slide on a large 50" screen for a better look at the plant, something else didn't make sense. A power plant should have high tension lines emanating from it on large towers to distribute the power it generates. This one has no towers with high tension lines!
This reporter began "connecting the dots" . . .
If someone or some company wanted to hide a factory, what better place than near the Great Divide Basin, out in the wilds of the high plains as far from any civilization as one can get?
Could this be Olympus' SECRET Wyoming Factory? Are unconfirmed rumors of Olympus using antelope, prairie dogs and jackelopes to secretly design and build cameras actually true? See the unretouched photograph of this factory for yourself:
 |
| SECRET Camera Factory or Power Plant? Copyright © 2001 John A. Lind |
4. I Report, YOU Decide
Is it Truth?Is it Fiction?
Is it Rural Legend?
I report, YOU decide . . .