Olympus M1

[Joel_L]

Recently I bought an M1 to add to my Olympus collection.

The camera is in very good condition. The only issue I found is the film release to rewind the film would not stay in the release position.

To repair it, I only needed to take the top cover off and the frame counter assembly. What I found is that the little arm the rotates and lifts the drive plate that release the film sprocket was bent. Not sure how that could have happened, it seems pretty robust. In anycase, it was bent so I straightened it out. Once that was done, the release knob would stay put until you went to wind a frame.

I reinstalled the frame counter assembly and put the top back on.

Every thing works as expected, but I found something on top of the focus screen. I removed the screen and a piece fell out. I scoured through my assembly manual and can't identify what it is. I'm not sure how it got there, I did not remove the prism and not sure how something would have gotten under it.

The piece is about 8mm long.

While I was in there, I noticed the hold down for the prism did not use the foam tape the destroys them. The setup in the M-1 is slightly different than my OM-1s I have had to repair.

Anyone know what this little piece is? The camera seems to be working fine.

 

[4season]

I've seen a tiny metal shim (simple sliver of silver metal, not tapered as yours is) used beneath the bottom cover. Cemented to the edge of the main body casting, it provided a little extra clearance. I was able to determine it's original location because there was some adhesive residue exactly conforming to it's shape.

 

[Joel_L]

I did have the bottom off to do a battery mod, but not sure how it would get between the focusing screen and the prism if it were such a piece.