Olympus 35 SP stuck EV value

[chris_zeel]

I just received a nice looking and smoothly working Olympus 35 SP, which accounts for the shutter, aperture and transport.


When I opened up the battery compartment I found an old battery and some white corrosion in the clip and screw.

I cleaned the compartment up with white vinegar as good as it got and put a fresh Weincell 625 battery in it.


The situation now is in the viewfinder I constantly see the needle just above EV 11, and when I hit the SPOT button is drops to EV 8.

Covering the meter cell next to the viewfinder window does not change anything, changing the ASA setting neither.


Anyone an idea of what's happening and whether it's (easily) solvable?

 

[splitimageview]

check to see if the aperture in the meter cell opens and closes as you turn ASA dial

 

[chris_zeel]

I checked and it does.

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[splitimageview]

Hard to diagnose this one, the needle isn't changing under different lighting? Where is the needle with the battery removed?

 

[chris_zeel]

With the battery removed the needle is all the way to the right of the EV scale, actually in front the the "V" of "EV".

It doesn't change to different lighting. Even when I put my finger on the meter cell.

 

[chris_zeel]

Any ideas of that could be going on?

Are these cameras usually well fixable?

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[zuikologist]

Try exercising the camera for say 100 shots, it might dislodge some corrosion causing a short circuit.

 

[chris_zeel]

Thanks for the advice.

Would I need to shoot in full auto mode?

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[zuikologist]

I would shoot in both modes and all apertures/shutter speeds and just see what happens.

One other thing to look at - is the battery chamber and cap dry after cleaning, there may be a short circuit there.

 

[chris_zeel]

I shot a number somewhere around 100 shots, without success.

I took another look in the battery compartment, and found that there was still some white corrosion left around the screw that holds the clip. The rest of the compartment and the cap were dry.

I scraped it a little more and tried to unscrew the screw to do it thoroughly.
The screw got somewhat damaged but I manage to turn it.

Although the clip got loosened and I clean up some more white corrosion, the screw did not come out fully.

When I screwed in back in and placed the battery back, I have no meter reading at all anymore.


Here's how it looks like now.

 

[zuikologist]

Sorry to hear that. It sounds like the wire from the clip is corroded and has probably now broken form the clip.

 

[chris_zeel]

Could this be part of why the meter gave a constant readout?

How are the electronics inside? Difficult to repair?

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[Vintage35]

Only thing I can think of, that is, when the wire was still connected and it was somewhat working, the CDS cell is going bad. I have a Konica C35 that did almost the same thing. the wire will need replacing and perhaps it will work fine with full current.

Luckily your camera works in full Manual.

 

[farlymac]

Corrosion will creep along the wiring from the battery compartment, which is a big problem on Yashica RFs. You may have to go deeper and replace the wire from the battery to the meter. The corrosion would also make the wire high resistance, which could explain the way it acted before.

PF