OlympusSuperzoom 140S

The Olympus Superzoom 140S comes out of the last full decade of mass-market film, before APS and digital fought over the leftovers. Catalogued as a autofocus compact, it pairs the Olympus 38–140mm f/5.6–12.7 with a 35mm film path. A bit of background: sold as the Stylus Zoom 140 in North America.

Format

35mm

Year

1997

Lens

Olympus 38–140mm f/5.6–12.7

Min. focus

0.6 m

Flash

Built-in auto multi-mode

Battery

1× CR123A

The Olympus 38–140mm f/5.6–12.7 covers wide-to-short-tele in one barrel — one lens, no decisions, point and shoot. Film supply is a non-issue: any 35mm cassette from any lab works. A single CR123A lithium cell powers everything including the motor; still cheap and stocked at most camera shops. The built-in flash will fire whenever the meter decides it should, so learn the override before your first night out. Minimum focus is 0.6 m, close enough for a coffee cup or a face but stops short of true macro. One thing worth knowing before you load a roll: one of the longest zooms Olympus put into a non-DLX compact in the late '90s. Built for family events, holidays and anything where you'd rather reframe than walk.

Quietly underrated, the Olympus Superzoom 140S is the kind of camera people brag about owning five years from now and ten times the price.

• §1Sold as the Stylus Zoom 140 in North America.
• §2One of the longest zooms Olympus put into a non-DLX compact in the late '90s.