OM1n broke!

[Chris101]

I was shooting my OM1n with EFKE-25 film. The wider seemed a bit stiff on one shot, and when I developed the roll, it seems that it did not wind for that frame (there was an unintentional double exposure.) I was shooting in bright light with speeds of 125 and faster.

Last night, I put some 800 color film in to shoot the stars, and the camera would not shoot below 1/60th of a second! Every slow speed sounded just like 1/60th, - even Bulb!

Anyone ever encountered a problem like this? I have looked into the shutter and I don't see anything obviously broken, and all the controls feel normal. I'm thinking that it might not be economically sound to have it repaired, as I could probably replace it for a hundred/hundred fifty bucks.

Any ideas, or perhaps sympathy, as I am very bummed. 🙁

 

[mrb]

I vote for repair, and you have my sympathies

I vote for repair, and you have my sympathies

I just sent my OM-G to this guy

http://www.zuiko.com/

for repairs. If you wait until mid january, I'll tell you how it comes out. I think you face the same general problem I faced: you can buy a 30-year old OM body on ebay for N $, or you can have yours repaired for just a little less than N $. I choose the repair route because I figured it would put another 30 years of life into my camera body. A used OM from ebay is likely to need some repair work soon, if not immediately. Good luck.

 

[Trius]

Chris: I would send it out for repair unless you can find another OM-1n that has recently been CLAd for less money than what John Hermanson would charge you for a CLA.

 

[Chris101]

Thanks guys. I guess it's off to Camtech (aka zuiko.com, John Hermanson) for repair.

 

[Spyderman]

I once repaired the problem with shutter, but it was very complicated and wouldn't dare to do it again. The repair included separating mirror box from body and removing slow speeds clockwork and cleaning it in naphta.

Never again!

BTW: I posted a thread about the repair loooong ago.

 

[nobbylon]

Chris,
I would go the repair it myself route, nothing to lose really and if it doesn't work then you can send it off for a cla. I did one of mine (the chrome om1) I have and works like a charm!
this may help,
http://www.photographic.co.nz/cameraworks/cameras/om1_shutter/
good luck! j

 

[Trius]

If you do any work on an OM yourself, forget about sending it to John. He does not work on OMs that have had "user" attention.

 

[gb hill]

I have a Spotmatic with a locked up mirror. Well it's my stepsons but he never uses it. Probably the reason it is locked up. I think I am going to send it off to a recommended person here in USA for a fix. Then when I get it back I know I will have a good camera that will last me the rest of my life.

 

[nobbylon]

just a thought, when i got my om1 the mirror was locked (stuck) in th up position. It turned out to be the foam which damps the mirror had gone to goo and the mirror was stuck to it!

 

[gb hill]

just a thought, when i got my om1 the mirror was locked (stuck) in th up position. It turned out to be the foam which damps the mirror had gone to goo and the mirror was stuck to it!

I checked that on the Spotmatic already and thats not the case. I wish it was. I have plenty of light seal material for my cameras.

 

[Chris101]

BTW: I posted a thread about the repair loooong ago.

Boy oh boy, doesn't thatbalck OM look good all brassed up like that! 🙂

I have taken Rollei shutters down to the springs and come back with a working camera, but I am afreaid that at this point in my attentiveness, I'd get it apart, and just give up! 😱

Thank you all for the information and encouragement! On Monday I packaged my camera up and sent it to John Hermanson for repair and overhaul. I especially liked the bonuses that came with the overhaul! From the depth of information available on his website, Hermanson seems like a capable repairman, and one who is dedicated to the OM line. I am completely confident in his ability to repair my camera, and I look forward to it's return in perfect working order.

My alternative was to sell that sweet 21mm f/2 lens, but I couldn't find anything like it in any system, modern or old - even Leica (which I love, see my avatar) doesn't come close - the 21 Zuiko seems to be perfect at f/2! So, you see, I need an OM body to use it!

 

[Chris101]

I have a Spotmatic with a locked up mirror. Well it's my stepsons but he never uses it. Probably the reason it is locked up. I think I am going to send it off to a recommended person here in USA for a fix. Then when I get it back I know I will have a good camera that will last me the rest of my life.

Ahhh, the Pentax Spotmatic. I used one of these in 1970, such a nice camera! It belonged to a friend who dropped it into a deep dark hole while we were spelunking Onyx cave in SE Arizona. We retrieved it, and rebuilt it, but it never worked the same after that. After that I bought my own camera!

 

[Chris101]

I just got my OM1n back from Camtech (John H., zuiko.com) and it looks like it is fixed. The invoice said listed several internal repairs to the shutter mechanism. The foam has been replaced in the back, mirrorbox and supposedly around the prism, the meter needle straightened, the ASA plate put on correctly, and it now works with regular AgO batteries. Oh, and the X/FP selector now moves (which it didn't before.) And I now have the metal cover to the MD hole instead of a piece of tape.

I'll run a roll through it shortly, but judging from the look (sparkling) and feel (smooth) of the camera, I'd say the overhaul was a complete success. I'm looking forward to another 25 years with this camera.

Bravo to Camtech!

 

[cmedin]

Glad to hear you're happy -- my OM2 should be here tomorrow or so from a Camtech CLA. 🙂

 

[cmedin]

So Chris, how'd the camera work out? 🙂

Mine showed up today and man, it's gorgeous -- if it didn't have a tiny ding on one corner you'd swear it was brand new. Nice and smooth and oh so pretty...

 

[Chris101]

😱 I haven't finished the first roll yet, the counter is only on 23. Like you said, it feels brand new. As soon as I got it, I put the 50mm f/1.4 on it and have shot everything so far with that lens and sometimes, a red filter. It's loaded with delta 3200.

 

[ChrisN]

Nice to hear all seems ok. I just acquired an OM-2n in a moment of weakness. I love my Pentaxes, but I really like the quiet shutter on the OM cameras. An OM10 was my first SLR, and my only camera for the better part of twenty years, so my hands are programmed to the controls on the OM 50/1.8 lens. Did you know that on the Pentax lenses, the focus ring turns the other way? It does make a difference!

 

[cmedin]

That explains why my OM2 feels 'weird' to use; I'm a long time Pentax user. 🙂

By the way, fun tidbit on the OM2: when in auto mode the initial meter reading (that's shown in the viewfinder) comes from sensors mounted to the prism, while the actual reading for exposure is taken from the sensors pointed at the film plane. If you fire it without film in auto mode the reflectance will be off the pressure plate and while the meter might say 1/250 you might get an exposure of several seconds when pressing the shutter... it worried me the first time I did it, thought something was broken!

 

[shadowfox]

So glad you got it back and be happy with it, Chris.

My OM-1 was CLA'd but the guy use a felt for the light seal and it covers the automatic film counter reset "tab", it took me a while to figure out why do I need to poke around the groove to reset the film counter 😀

I need to replace it with Jon Goodman's seals.

 

[Chris101]

Nice to hear all seems ok. I just acquired an OM-2n in a moment of weakness. I love my Pentaxes, but I really like the quiet shutter on the OM cameras. An OM10 was my first SLR, and my only camera for the better part of twenty years, so my hands are programmed to the controls on the OM 50/1.8 lens. Did you know that on the Pentax lenses, the focus ring turns the other way? It does make a difference!

Thanks Chris. I think it's the shutter speed control that takes some getting used to though!

That explains why my OM2 feels 'weird' to use; I'm a long time Pentax user. 🙂

By the way, fun tidbit on the OM2: when in auto mode the initial meter reading (that's shown in the viewfinder) comes from sensors mounted to the prism, while the actual reading for exposure is taken from the sensors pointed at the film plane. If you fire it without film in auto mode the reflectance will be off the pressure plate and while the meter might say 1/250 you might get an exposure of several seconds when pressing the shutter... it worried me the first time I did it, thought something was broken!

I think, if I'm not mistaken, that the OM2 was the first 35mm camera to have 'off the film' metering, so it's not surprising that it worked ... idiosynchratically.

So glad you got it back and be happy with it, Chris.

My OM-1 was CLA'd but the guy use a felt for the light seal and it covers the automatic film counter reset "tab", it took me a while to figure out why do I need to poke around the groove to reset the film counter 😀

I need to replace it with Jon Goodman's seals.

Thanks Will!

You may have seen on another thread that I recently got a bargain slr, a Nikon FG. It came with a Goodman foam kit, as all the foam on it had turned to mush. It seems straight-forward enough to do, but the kit is generic and you need to cut the exact pieces you need.