Summary: The Tide of History
Comment: These are currently available on eBay for pennies. They are not old enough to be antiques, and not new enough to be valuable, and they do not have a culty reputation. In fact there is very little about them on the internet. They are however capable cameras. I have run a couple of rolls through mine, and the lens was sharp and clear. It is basically an Olympus Stylus Zoom 105 with a leathery covering, neither of which are bad things.
As far as I can tell there was an original Olympus LT-1 model, which had a more expansive leather case and a fixed lens, which was followed by the LT Zoom 105, which is this. Olympus has not repeated the experiment. The LT 105 is an autofocus, auto-exposure point-and-shoot 35mm compact camera with a built-in flash. It has no manual features. It fits into a pocket, and it is weatherproof. It is comfy to hold and has a lens that zooms from 38-105mm. It takes a single CR-123 battery. The case feels warm and leathery, although it is synthetic. The camera can sense DX encoding. The lens goes from f4.5 to f8.9, which is decent for this kind of camera although not spectacular. The speed feels retrogressive - the previous generation of fixed-lens point-and-shoots were f2.8, and the popular rangefinders of the 1970s were f1.7 or thereabouts. I suppose the flash compensates for this. You can turn the flash off. There are several flash modes, although I have not used them. It is light, but feels tough, as if it would survive a drop onto grass, and probably a short drop onto concrete. It does not have an accessory shoe. The lens does not have a filter thread. There is an electronic self-timer. The film transport mechanism and shutter are both electrically powered. According to the manual, the shutter goes from 1/500 to four seconds. The tripod socket is under the right edge of the camera, below the battery compartment.
There is nothing wrong with the pictures. The exposure is fine and the lens is sharp and clear, although I did not take anything with the camera zoomed in, and I did not test the camera. I took some shots of traffic at night, and they came out. The autofocus seems to work, although I worry that there isn't a manual focus mode (in fact the camera refuses to take a picture at all if the subject is closer than 0.6m). The camera has some usability quirks, and overall I prefer my older Olympus XA2. The XA2 does not have autofocus, DX encoding, zoom, auto wind, or a built-in flash, but it is smaller, handier, has a brighter and larger viewfinder, and a faster and slightly wider lens.
The LT's first problem is the viewfinder, which is small and dim. It is very poor. In low light I can barely see anything through the finder. In fact, when the light is dim I can barely find the viewfinder at all, let alone see through it. Part of the problem is that it is directly in the centre of the camera's back. If it had been an inch to the left, it would have been easier to look through. If your head is not aligned straight down the middle of the finder, it is opaque.
The camera is noisy. When you turn it on, the motor moves the lens into place. When you take a picture, the motor winds to the next frame of film, and when you finish a roll the motor winds the film back. When you zoom, the motor whirrs. It is a loud motor. Even in a restaurant, people around you will know that you are taking pictures. In contrast, the Olympus XA2 is basically silent. Furthermore you can easily take the XA2 out of your pocket, open it up, and put it back in for later use. The L105 is pocket-sized when it is turned off, but the lens protrudes when you turn it on. The lens caps protrudes even more. The lens cap deploys downwards, and acts as a makeshift stabiliser, or a titchy lens hood if you hold the camera upside-down. The lens cap doesn't retract when you turn the camera off, and it's easy to forget this. Several times I tried to put the camera back into my pocket, and the lens cap got caught up in my clothes. It's my own fault, I suppose. Like all the brightwork on the front of the camera, the lens cap is plastic. There is no place for an alternative lens cap, and I imagine that spare lens caps are as rare as hen's teeth. Hens don't have teeth, you see. That is where that saying comes from. A hen is a type of chicken. They have beaks.
The zoom lens protrudes almost three inches from the camera. It is undeniably phallic, although less than half the size and girth of a real phallus. If you erect the lens to its fullest engorgement, people around you will grin. It zooms quickly, although noisily. The camera looks silly with the lens zoomed out, although it is unfair to dock points for this, and I will not. The zoom range is handy, but f8.9 at 105mm is very slow. At that level it's basically a portrait lens for good light outdoors - and you won't be taking sharp long-range shots at air shows, or candid portraits of your sunbathing neighbours, it doesn't zoom that far.
And in all likelihood you won't be taking any shots with this camera at all. It is a film camera, and falls into a nether region, as I explained at the top of the review. It's not old or curious or definitive or posh enough to be valuable, and for the kind of shots you are likely to take, a digital camera would be a superior choice. Mountaineers and sentimental photographers who need a backup will probably go for a stylish and slightly culty Olympus XA, or one of the regular Stylus models, and nostalgic photographers will want something made of metal with manual focus. For itself, it's a decent point & shoot, but the tide of history has ebbed away from it.
The other reviewers mention a problem with winding. I have not experienced this, but then again I have only run two rolls of film through the camera, so I can't comment except to say that I can't comment.