Olympus mju:ii severely overexposes

[domagojs]

Hi all,

on the last roll from the mju, there are quite a few severely overexposed frames, i.e. the negatives are much lighter than they should be :-/ additionally, the light leaks forming on the "lower" part of the film, over the sprocket holes, got much worse than before and now they protrude into the negative, which they didn't do before (although they were present).

could it be that this additional light in the chamber fooled the meter?

here's one pic which shows it:

mju:ii overexposure by Mr. Bizi, on Flickr

I'd very much appreciate your tips and suggestions what can i do to fix it! I really like the camera when it hits and would like to be able to rely on it...

 

[Stelios]

Try taping the back of it with some black tape and see if it still happens.

 

[farlymac]

Light leaks in the chamber aren't going to affect the metering, as that is done from a cell on the front of the camera. More light hitting the film will exacerbate any light leak effects you are getting.

Have you changed the battery lately?

Have you looked at the lens opening from the rear while dry firing it to see if the aperture leaves are closing down properly?

Have you been able to determine if the shutter speeds seem to be correct for the light situation?

Aperture could be sticking.
Shutter could be sticking.
CdS cell could be dying.

PF

 

[David Hughes]

Failing that, try a bit of tape on the segment on the DX coding to fool the DX reader... (Or get it repaired.)

Regards, David

 

[btgc]

I have a Rollei Prego 30 which overexposes by a stop or so. Modifying DX code as a stop more sensitive (that is, to force camera to underxpose) makes exposures looking OK.

 

[domagojs]

Thank you all very much for your very helpful answers and tips!

Light leaks in the chamber aren't going to affect the metering, as that is done from a cell on the front of the camera. More light hitting the film will exacerbate any light leak effects you are getting.

Have you changed the battery lately?

Have you looked at the lens opening from the rear while dry firing it to see if the aperture leaves are closing down properly?

Have you been able to determine if the shutter speeds seem to be correct for the light situation?

Aperture could be sticking.
Shutter could be sticking.
CdS cell could be dying.

PF

Yeah, you're right, I didn't remember that the metering cell is actually at the front of the camera... That means there's something more seriously wrong with the camera. Which is a shame, since i really like it :-(

Do you have an idea how can I make the mju:ii dry fire? Some exposures are ok, some are off, so it's rather erratic...

Re the battery, the camera shows it's full. I put brand new battery last December and shot some 5 or so rolls through the year, so I believe the battery is still ok...

Re the suggestions for tricking DX code reader, this overexposure is rather sporadic, i.e. it did it on few frames and then one, two frames were ok, so I don't believe it would be the way to go.

I hope the camera isn't dying on me, I really like it :-/

 

[Gregoyle]

You may want to check to see if the DX coding is working. Perhaps something got in front of the electrodes. The mju ii will default to ISO 100 if it doesn't receive DX encoding information.

Also, are you using film that doesn't have DX coding? That could do it, too. Although most ISO 400 B&W films will do OK when overexposed by 2 stops...

 

[Greyscale]

So get a new one. At this point in their useful cycle, 35mm point and shoot cameras are almost disposable and not really worth repairing, in fact, most disposable cameras are more expensive than what you should pay for a decent piece of plastic fantastic. The cult status of the Stylus Epic makes it slightly more pricey than most, consider the original Stylus/mju if you are too enamored of Olympus optics to consider other alternatives.

 

[Gregoyle]

Greyscale, you have a great point. Not sure how available/cheap they are in Croatia, though.

 

[farlymac]

Yeah, I don't think they have Goodwill and Salvation Army stores there.

PF

 

[farlymac]

Here's a thought. Since it's such a sporadic thing, could you perhaps be blocking the meter cell with a stray finger? But then you could also be blocking the AF sensors at the same time, and that has not been an issue, so the possibility is remote at best.

You could also clean the DX contacts with an eraser. For dry firing, you just open the back, set the flash to Off, and fire away, looking through the lens from the rear. Point it at a lamp, then towards a dark corner. You should see the aperture working, closing down when pointed at the light, and opening up when pointed at the dark corner. The aperture is three bladed, so it makes a triangular image when you look through the lens.

PF

 

[domagojs]

we don't have thrift stores here (at least not ones with cameras), but I just looked at the local craigslist and there's one for cca. $60, which is a going rate at ebay, i guess. my problem with getting another one is that there's no guarantee it would work either. and if i go through three of them, i'm approaching the price for a ricoh gr, or contax t2, t3...

i have one more frame to finish the next roll and we'll see how did the camera do with this one. after that i can try cleaning it and shoot one more roll and then either it works or it goes to the shelf...

 

[domagojs]

i just looked it up, on the same local craig's list , mju i goes for $70!!!