Question about the light meter in the Olympus 35 sp

[MarylandBill]

Hi folks, I just kind of hit the jackpot today... I was in a thrift store and found an Olympus 35 SP that appears to be in nearly perfect condition for under $40. So I couldn't resist and now it is making my Fujica Compact Deluxe jealous 🙂.

When I got it home though I noticed that light metering appeared to be off. Comparing it to where my Fujica would take pictures and then the light meter app for my Android phone, it appears to be registering over a full stop off. Right now, I had to set the ISO to between 100 and 200 to get the EV numbers to agree with my smart phone app. Could this be the battery? I opened it up, and the current battery is an Everready EPX625.

Any insight would be useful. Obviously the light meter can be compensated for, but I would like it working properly if I can get it.

--
Bill

 

[murpograph]

Congrats, you got one of the best fixed-lens rangefinders ever built. The lens is excellent. You should look however for a lens shade to get the best out of the lens and protect it.
Regarding the exposure-meter it could be in fact the battery, as the exposure meter is calibrated originally for mercury cells 1,35V. It can be recalibrated to 1,5V or you use the weincell or even zinc-air batteries for hearing-aids. If you recalibrate it for 1,5V you should use silver-batteries as their voltage curve is similar to the curve of mercury-cells.

Just another hint regarding the use of the camera. Either you use the exposure automatic then you have to adjust the aperture- and shutterring to "A". Although it's possible to leave the "A"-position with one ring only you won't have an aperture- or time-automatic. There is only fully automatic exposure or manual. Furthermore you should know, that the meter does work conitunally as long as the metering window gets some light and is sucking energy from the battery. Therefore a neverready-case is helpful or you cover the window with black tape or remove the battery as long as you do not use the camera.

Regards
Udo

 

[MarylandBill]

Thanks Udo.

Just curious, do you know how I can tell whether the battery I currently have is an alkaline or some other sort?

I am looking forward to using this camera and might shoot a roll using my cell phone as a meter.

--
Bill

 

[murpograph]

I'd say it's an alkaline-cell. But I heard from a dealer here in Germany, that the makes any year a trip to New York and buys newly produced mercury-cells in just the 675-dimensions. Therefore it should be possible to get them after a little research. Regarding the handling you should have a look on the butkus-website. Maybe he offers the manual of the camera.

Regards

Udo

 

[MarylandBill]

Udo,

My thanks again. Yeah, I found the manual online. Though since this isn't my first rangefinder, I didn't find it that hard to figure out. The only thing that took some time was figuring out how the EV values worked with the lens and the shuter; it wasn't tough, just never had to deal with it before. While I haven't used it yet, I like the EV values because I can use it to go beyond the official ISO range of the camera. Might be useful for shooting indoors where I need fairly bright lights to shoot at iso400 film (though the camera does directly support iso800 as well).

--
Bill

 

[Frontman]

The original battery us a MR9 mercury cell. I use an SR44 battery with an adapter which had a step-down diode, and the meter is reasonably accurate with this setup. Enjoy shooting the camera, I love the old SP.