Olympus Mju II Question

Hi, I've got a quick question for you all. My Mju II arrived today. When I opened up the back I noticed a plastic strip next to where the film is loaded. I thought this might be a stuck bit of film so I gave it a gentle pull and it didn't budge. What is this? I've seen it in some videos showing how to load the film into the camera so I know it's supposed to be there. Is it super fragile... should I have not been pulling it and getting fingerprints on it etc? Thanks

Calling all Mju II users, as one of these myself, this has got me wondering. I gave some thought and wonder if it is relevant to the rewind action when the camera rewind motor on the cassette end somehow detects that it needs to rewind after 24/36 frames i.e. is it part of an electro-mechanical system or does the cassette coding send the message to something that is triggered after the button is pressed on 24/36th frame.

If you were a secondhand buyer you might well assume this was a stuck piece of film and wrongly try and remove it.

pentaxuser

To be serious, there is no film strip in the film chamber of a Mju II that one can touch or even grasp.

Only thing I can imagine is the sticker in the compartment of the take-up spool. It shows where the film leader has to sit and is stuck to the outer wall of that compartment.

The far end of this sticker is supposed to stick to the wall too. It may have come lose, bending towards the spool. Turning now the spool in the advance direction may make you hear a click-sound from the take-up hook, making the rather stiff sticker snap. Turning the spool in the opposite direction, as in rewinding, may tear the rear part of that sticker to the front, yielding a protruding strip.

If this is the case, either return the camera or pull out that sticker completely.

In contrast to many other cameras of this type, even its own predecessor, the model II does not have a take-up drum with moulded teeth to grab a perforation hole, but a bit thinner spool with a real, springloaded hook.

AgX said:

To be serious, there is no film strip in the film chamber of a Mju II that one can touch or even grasp.

Click to expand...

Well, aside of that sticker I talk about above, there is another foil strip, but outside the film chamber. It sits in in the door hinge, and is a foil cable connecting body and the display in the door. This bulges a bit when the door is opened. You better not touch it. If that foil is not bulging but has a kink or even is loose, return the camera.

I have the same camera as Thomas. Mine was bought new. There is a dark strip in the take-up spool chamber that sits on the side of the chamber that is nearest the lens compartment and the take-up spool chamber that is a dark brown/black colour on both sides and while it doesn't protrude above the level of the film rails it looks exactly like the end of a stuck piece of film. For ease of reference I'll continue to refer to it as a "stuck piece of film" I had not noticed it until Thomas mentioned it here. Mine gives no appearance of ever having becoming unstuck from the film receiving chamber. It is clearly attached to something in the chamber and has to be there for a reason.

I am unsure, AgX, what you are referring to when you mention. On the door there is the usual black pressure plate for the film and underneath that there is a metal strip and on the door clasp end there is a curved flexible piece of metal but none of this has anything to do with Thomas' " stuck piece of film" for want of a better description.

Thomas, I don't know how easy this will be but a picture with an arrow of where this piece is might help if you have a digital camera. I have no means of doing this as i do not own a digital camera

If it is any help and to stop someone suggesting it. The instruction book say nothing about this. It is a simple instruction book and not a camera manual unfortunately. Olympus probably didn't expect its users to even notice this "piece of film"

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

I have the same camera as Thomas. Mine was bought new. There is a dark strip in the take-up spool chamber that sits on the side of the chamber that is nearest the lens compartment and the take-up spool chamber that is a dark brown/black colour on both sides and while it doesn't protrude above the level of the film rails it looks exactly like the end of a stuck piece of film.

Click to expand...

Never seen such.

Maybe there are different versions of model II.
But what use has that piece of foil??

pentaxuser said:

I am unsure, AgX, what you are referring to when you mention. On the door there is the usual black pressure plate for the film and underneath that there is a metal strip and on the door clasp end there is a curved flexible piece of metal but none of this has anything to do with Thomas' " stuck piece of film" for want of a better description.

Click to expand...

I am referring to the foil at the door hinge.

I think a picture would be worth a thousand words here. Everyone's playing guessing games.