Olympus OM3 strange battery behavior

Luca M · Mar 9, 2018

Hello everybody,
Two weeks ago I acquired an Olympus OM3. It was being sold as broken, but upon arrival I managed to fix the stuck shutter advance lever and the camera has been working fine ever since.
The camera is still manifesting a problem: whenever I put in batteries ( I only use silver oxide’s) both the meter and the battery check work, but as soon as I fire the shutter the camera dies. What’s even more strange is that it doesn’t exactly die, since I still can see information in the viewfinder LCD, but it actually is “stuck” on the last reading that the meter showed before firing the shutter.
I would like to try to fix this myself before I send it for repair.
Any help is appreciated.
I really don’t want to part ways with this camera since I bought it for cheap
If needed I might post a video to further illustrate the issue

Svenedin · Mar 9, 2018

I can't really help with a DIY fix but I can say that I had an OM4-Ti with very similar behaviour. I sent it to OM Doktor in Hamburg, Germany and it is fixed. As I understand it, the problem was dirty contacts for both the shutter speed and the film speed dials. Somehow, this caused the camera to jam when the shutter was fired and the shutter could only be returned by fiddling with the dials. Although the OM3 is mechanical for the shutter it is still electrical for the metering. Of course there could be more than one problem at the same time. As this is a relatively rare and excellent camera I would suggest send it away to an expert and then you can enjoy it for years to come. One very simple check you can do is to remove the bottom plate. This bottom plate is an essential part of the electrical connection for the battery. Clean the thread of the battery compartment cover and ensure when you put the bottom plate back that it is tight (these can become loose, especially when the camera has been used a lot on a tripod). I'd also suggest you move the shutter speed ring and film speed dials back and forth a bit. This might help but may be only a temporary reprieve. Anything else is really not for user tinkering IMHO.

Luca M · Mar 9, 2018

Thank you for your reply. I was only aware of Mr. Hermanson and Luton camera repair. since I live in Italy Hamburg might be a better solution than sending my camera to the US or UK.
My problem doesn’t sound exactly like yours though. What happens is that the electrical part of the OM3 stops working evert time I fire the shutter. The shutter always works fine.
I already cleaned the advance gears and the cammes in the bottom part of the camera as soon as I got it, same thing goes for the bottom “spring” contact in the battery compartment.
I also opened the top cov r after the behavior started appearing but to my surprise, the camera had already been tinkered with. The retaining ring for the advance lever on the top has been heavily marred, I think due to a bad spanner wrench.
I’ll try to clean the wipers under the ASA and exposure compensation gear and see if anything changes.
What’s even more strange is that sometimes, after the camera electrically does, as I turn the battery compartment cap, the connection is reinstated and the camera starts working again (it starts beeping)
Could it just be that the paint in the battery cap is preventing a good ground connection to be established?
Long post, I know, but I really hope to get this camera going and substitute my om4

Svenedin · Mar 9, 2018

Yes clean the thread of the battery cap with one of those glass fibre contact cleaner pens. Clean both parts of the thread (camera and cap). Also check bottom plate where it makes an electrical connection. Sounds like a bad electrical connection. It may be that the there is more than one bad contact. Actually my camera would work again by fiddling with the battery cap but there was a problem elsewhere too. Worth a try.

Rick A · Mar 9, 2018

If your OM-3 has a black battery cap, replace it with a chrome one. I had an OM-4 that I sent to John Hermanson and that was part of the fix. He told me that all the black covers had issue and he replaced them as standard procedure, no matter what.

Luca M · Mar 9, 2018

Thank you both for the replies. I will Re check all the connections visible under the bottomplate and try to clean the cap and spring over the weekend. Unfortunately I don’t own any chrome OM model so I cant swap caps today. I’ll try to find one on eBay and see if it’s of any help. For all that I know the paint on the OM3 and my OM4 seem to be different, the OM3 seems to be shinier and flakier whilst the OM4 has more of a matte finish, even though the caps of the om4 are black it never had any problem like the OM3 has. Go figure.
@Svenedin , might I ask how much OMdoktor charged you for the repairs? I wouldn’t want to end up spending more than the cameras actual market value after all...

Svenedin · Mar 9, 2018

@Luca M The repairs cost €172 including shipping. This was also a repair to the film transport mechanism, not just electrical. As to market value, well you need to be comparing to the cost of a recently overhauled OM3 or an OM3 with a guarantee from a dealer. Having said that, whether it is "worth it" or not depends on the value of a reliable OM3 to you.

It doesn't matter whether the battery cap is black or not. That is just aesthetic. It does matter if a black cap has paint on the threads that prevents a reliable electrical connection.

Picture is my OM3-Ti

Luca M · Mar 13, 2018

Hey everybody,
I tested the OM3 a bit further and here is what I found. The faulty connection doesn’t seem to be caused by paint in the cap threads or by the bottom cover. I checked by borrowing a bottom cover off of a perfectly working om4 and the problem still presented itself the same way: as soon as I fire the shutter the electrical connection breaks.
I checked the voltage under load when the battery does make contact and it does fall right around specs at 2.55 volts. What I find really interesting is the current drawn on standby, about .6 milliamps, way higher than the 27-30 microamps drawn by the om4. I just find it very odd that even though both cameras are known to have a battery drainage problem, the OM3 seems to be out of specs compared to the om4.
What I also noticed is that in order to establish a good connection you kinda have to push the batteries deep into the battery compartment

shutterfinger · Mar 13, 2018

A search in my area for Olympus OM3 service manual turned up this exploded parts diagram Dead Link Removed
Which should be of some help.

Luca M said:
What I also noticed is that in order to establish a good connection you kinda have to push the batteries deep into the battery compartment

This suggests a weak connection in/at the battery compartment, the contact strip in the compartment may be cracked where it goes through the nylon/plastic housing.

Bill Burk · Mar 13, 2018

I bet the shutter release is supposed to send a soft reset to the meter, to clear your last settings if you didn’t set them to memory. This reset is probably doing something wrong. Can you use the set/clear memory toggle to get it working after a shot?

Luca M · Mar 13, 2018

@Bill Burk you probably are correct, and that would justify the fact that I have to manually reset the camera every time by fiddling with the battery and breaking connection... unfortunately trying to manually force the soft reset via the clear toggle is not working.

Bill Burk · Mar 13, 2018

Thought for sure the “Clear” lever was going to work. What happens if you remove the lens? The OM-4 has an additional black pointy button in the lens mount to detect when you changed lenses

Luca M · Mar 14, 2018

The OM3 is just like the OM4, she has the lens detecting button on the front plate as well. When the camera is functioning pressing it will make the camera beep and the meter in the lcd will reset, but unfortunately it doesnt work after the camera freezes up after firing the shutter. I tried contacting the OM Doktor repairer in Hamburg but he has yet to answer. Any other good OM repairer in Europe?

Olympus OM3 strange battery behavior

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