Olympus 35RC woes...

[perkeleellinen]

I love my Oly 35RC; it's small size, shutter priority plus manual over-ride, ease of focus and ergonomics. But it drives me to distraction!

The worst possible faults in any machine are intermittent ones, you're never sure if the problem has been solved and they tend to crop up in the worst possible moments. And so it is with my Oly. Its problem is that the aperture blades sometimes refuse to open more than f11, the problem seems connected to the shutter release as even when set to 'off' I can fire the shutter.

Twice the camera's been for repair, twice it's come back seemingly fine only to fail again at a crucial moment.

The camera seems to have a built in homing device so that when I walk across the fields near my home it works fine, but if I travel a few hours away, it'll fail.

It also senses when an important photo needs to be taken - a nice country scene in bright light, no problem, a nice candid in low light, sorry I'm not opening my aperture more than f11. And just to prolong the pain, I'll fire my shutter when you put the camera in its bag whilst turned off.

Hence right now I'm looking it over and it's working absolutely fine, I cannot get it to show its fault. But on Saturday we had a nice walk in Oxford, wonderful low light across some buildings, but the Oly wouldn't open it's aperture more than f11.

Gah!

 

[heespharm]

that's really wierd... My 35rc is my work horse... carry that sucker everywhere and not a problem!!!

 

[perkeleellinen]

5 years ago the answer would have been to just buy another one. But now that Ken Rockwell has told his blog followers how great the camera is, it's become 'cult' with a corresponding price hike.

 

[gurkenprinz]

Hi Steve,

there is a very skilled Olympus repairman in Germany, I am quite sure he would be able to sort it out. That said, I am surprised because my 35RC is a workhorse, too, and has never let me down.

This is the website of Frank, who used to work for Olympus before starting his own business: www.om-doktor.de. I can recommend him very much - reliable and very nice guy with lots of knowledge (and fair prices).

As you said, buying another one is not really an option now that Mr. Rockwell has hyped it. So maybe repairing is better..

 

[perkeleellinen]

Thanks for that, gurkenprinz. I've just checked and the camera is still in guarantee from its last repair, so I'm hoping it can go back for a another look. If there's any further problems, I'll be in touch with your recommended repairman.

 

[mr rusty]

There is another reliable repair man here - Michael Spencer http://www.camerarepairs-r-us.co.uk/

Used him twice now for OM1 and OM2 and have been impressed by his honesty, courtiousness and good prices - definitely "old school". He does pick and choose what he does, so perhaps give him a call and discuss.

 

[perkeleellinen]

He does pick and choose what he does, so perhaps give him a call and discuss.

Thanks, I'd spoken to him before when I was originally looking for someone to look at the camera but he wouldn't take the job, he said the lack of spares and complex workings made the job uneconomical.

 

[elekm]

If you really like the camera, I probably would still suggest buying another. The price on these has risen (although I doubt one person would have that much effect globally), and at a certain point, it doesn't make sense to continue to put time and money into a camera that's unreliable.

There are still a lot of these on the used market, and your money would be best spent on a camera that works when and as you expect it.

 

[perkeleellinen]

I've just had an reply from the repairer; It's going back under guarantee.

 

[elekm]

I hope that everything works out for you. My initial thought is that there is some moisture on the aperture blades. But I'll leave it your repair guy. He'll have a better idea once he delves into it.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Thanks, Mike.