As previously mentioned, the OM-3Ti and OM-4Ti have improved environmental seals. The camera is essentially usable in almost any condition--not too unlike the E-1 and E-3.  Now, if you happen to take either camera out in a monsoon and something happens to it, don't blame me as common sense should apply, but these are cameras that aren't afraid of rain or snow.

The OM-3Ti's mechanical shutter requires no battery to operate. The batteries are for the metering system and TTL flash electronics, but are not required for the camera to function.  The OM-4Ti's electronic shutter does have a single mechanical shutter mode and will always work at 1/60 of a second if the batteries should fail. The OM-3Ti's shutter works at all speeds regardless of the batteries.

As is true with all single-digit OM bodies, the shutter is a horizontal cloth focal-plane design which is quiet and exceptionally reliable. However, it is limited to a normal 1/60 flash sync speed. 1/60 is very limiting and with other vertical metal shuttered cameras syncing as high as 1/500 of a second, seems primitive at best. Olympus attempted to address this issue with the F280 flash which emits a series of pulses instead of a single pulse. If you have the camera set at 1/1000 of a second, the flash will fire many times to provide even lighting as the gap between curtains one and two move across the face of the film. The power output of the high-speed sync flash is diminished so the effective guide-number is quite low, but for fill-flash in outdoor portraiture, the high-speed flash mode is reasonable and provides an option for the photographer needing to fill flash with higher-speed film outdoors. The OM-3Ti has a flash mode switch for OTF-TTL and X-sync. Any common flash, such as the Vivitar 285HV can be used in X-sync mode, whereas a flash with TTL capability like the Olympus T32 can use the OTF-TTL mode.

OTF (Off the Film) flash control is a brilliant feature of the OM series.  This is actually one of those features which has been imitated, but never duplicated. The camera has a light sensor in the bottom of the mirror box facing the film. Once the first curtain is fully open, the flash will fire. This sensor then measures the light falling on the film itself and when it determines that the correct amount of light has accumulated on the film, it issues a squelch command through an additional pin to the TTL-controlled flash. For macro photography, the Olympus flash system has been proven to be extremely accurate and easy to use. The OM series TTL system does not issue a preflash!  This is a real-time system with no delay unlike every currently available TTL system.

I'm sure you are wondering where I am going with this, right?  The OM-3Ti offers one advantage over all other OM bodies in regards to OTF flash control.  In auto mode, the OM-4Ti will automatically set the camera's shutter speed to 1/60 when it detects a (non-F280) TTL flash. If you really want to use a different shutter speed you really don't have that option and maintain OTF-TTL. The OM-3Ti, not electronically having the ability to actually override your choice in shutter speeds, will allow you to set the shutter-speed to any speed--including ones which exceed flash sync resulting in partially exposed images. On the flip side, the camera allows you to take auto-exposed flash exposures with shutter speeds as long as one second.  I personally make use of this ability by dragging the shutter to maintain a proper ambient exposure or for special effect. It is not uncommon for me to use 1/30 or 1/15 with flash. The OM-3Ti is the only OM body which has full OTF-TTL auto-flash control while in manual-exposure mode.

The mechanical film advance lever is a short-throw design and requires just a single flip with the thumb instead of the longer throw of many older OM bodies. The OM-4Ti is similar (or possibly identical), but ones I've used are raspier in sound and feel. Again, Olympus improved the mechanism to provide a smooth, luxurious feel to the film advance.

So, the question is, how does all this translate into actual operation?  Does a manual-exposure, mechanical-shutter camera still hold any intrinsic value over a more technically advanced film or digital camera?

Every camera biases operation in subtle and not so subtle ways. Take a modern digital camera with a PASM mode dial. This type of camera uses a button-select, dial-adjust control interface which requires the user to observe the setting being adjusted and the value it is being adjusted to. You can't even be sure about counting clicks as the dial clicks don't always correspond to an equal number of adjustment steps.  Usually, but not always. And then you have the issue that each click can be 1/3, 1/2 or 1 stop intervals.  In some modes, the front control-dial adjusts aperture, in other modes it adjusts shutter-speed and the rear-dial adjusts aperture. What this means is when you adjust a setting your eye will move from viewing the finder-screen to the data display to see what is going on. Furthermore, digital readouts need to be read and cannot be viewed in your peripheral vision. Operation of the camera controls is a distraction to the photographer and also limits the ability to alter settings by feel while the camera is away from the eye.

The OM-3Ti is a camera that can be operated by feel. As you are watching the scene looking for your next picture, you can change the shutter speed, aperture and focus without ever looking at the camera. You just raise the camera to your eye to frame and shoot. This is one characteristic of the Leica M-series which also sets it apart from other cameras and illustrates why it is considered the best street-photography camera made. In this aspect, the OM-3Ti's simplistic interface makes it the SLR version of the Leica M6.  Is the OM-3Ti any different than other OM bodies in this respect?  No, not really, but the OM-3Ti, like the OM-1 and OM-3 give you no other option as you are forced to work in a particular style.  This style isn't for every type of photography, but for street or people photography, this frees the photographer up from having to make decisions at a time when he should be focused instead on making the picture. These cameras allow for and encourage shot preplanning and stealthy operation.

One unique aspect of the OM bodies is the location of the shutter-speed ring. It is located at the throat of the lens-mount. This may seem like an awkward location for this control as nearly every traditional camera located the shutter-speed dial on the top of the camera.  However, the dial is located where the left hand is able to adjust, leaving the right hand free to do only three things--advance the film, run the spot-meter and press the shutter-release.  Again, without looking at the camera you are able to adjust the camera without looking. Another nifty aspect of this design is the ability to shift exposure.  If you move the aperture ring and the shutter speed ring in the same direction by the same number of clicks, you still have the same equivalent exposure.  Each click on a Zuiko lens' aperture ring is one stop and each click on the shutter speed ring is one stop. This capability may seem odd to the casual observer, as no other 35mm SLR camera features coordinated controls like this, but once a photographer immerses himself into this mode of operation, going back to a camera with separated controls seems uncoordinated and disruptive.

Aperture ring and Shutter Speed ring are next to each other when using the 35-80 F2.8 Zoom