OM-1 Light Meter is eratic

[dsmccrac]

Hi there

First post, after lurking for a bit. I have tried to search for this issue but have not found anything, apology if I am missed anything

I am a long time OM nerd, but I recently aquired my first OM-1. The light meter (loaded with fresh zinc-air batteries) is very eratic. When it settles down, the exposure is generally pretty accurate (compared to my OM-2 or 2n), but the needle hops up and down (when looking at a consistent light source) like it has had too much coffee. Also sometimes will either not move, or fly to the top of the range and need encouragement to "settle down", which I usually do my turning it off and on, or changing the aperture, or sometimes even pointing it at a brighter light source.

Like I said, when it stabilizes it usually is accurate, but it can sometimes take a few seconds for this to happen. I am guessing that these guys have a couple of light sensors in them like most of the other OMs, and that one of them is starting to spazz out.

Any comments?

Any yes, I know that one of the awesome things about the OM-1 is that I can just stop putting batteries in it and get my exposure settings some other way (sunny16, guessing, cheesy iphone app, etc), and yes when I shoot BW film I have a bit of latitude anyhow, but I would like to know if there is any hope for this light meter, or it I was to get it repaired how big of a deal it is.

Or am i just spoiled by the light meter in my OM-2 and 2n which both have rock solid light meters. Should my light meter in my OM-1 be comparable to the 2 series cameras in manual mode? I bought this camera for the 1.4 lens, but I am really starting to like its clean simplified design.

Thanks...
don

 

[mr rusty]

Where are you?. My OM1 did this. My repair man found a dry joint on a wire from the meter and sorted it. My guess is its either the swich contact or a similar problem.

Suggest send it to a repair man for CLA, get all the foam changed if it hasn't been already, get it converted to use SR44 cells and you should be good to go for a very long time. John Hermanson is the main man in US. I use Mike Spencer at http://www.camerarepairs-r-us.co.uk/ in the UK.

 

[ZackR]

You should make sure that there is no gunk where the battery makes contact or see if you can make different things happen when you flip the on/off switch to try to isolate the problem.

I would just send it to John at zuiko.com(as stated above). I got my camera back from him a couple months ago and couldn't be happier. It will cost $130 or so, but then everything is gone through and it will use normal batteries and you will never have to worry about it again. I find the meter to be very accurate, as long as you know where it is metering from and take that into account, which I find not to be a problem, but maybe that is because my om-1n is the first and only 35mm slr that I have ever used. But being a self-described "OM nerd," I don't have to tell you how great these cameras are.

 

[John Hermanson]

Bad cds cells won't cause erratic meter. You probably have partially corroded battery wire, broken meter ground or dirty meter switch. John

 

[dsmccrac]

Thanks gang! I will probably contact you, John, in a bit. As I am in canada it is a bit more complex, but I might be sending a care package of OMs that need some TLC!!!
don

 

[dsmccrac]

Haha. I should have known better than to talk about a piece of equipment as that usually makes it misbehave even more ;-)

Now the off switch is not fully turning it off, just causing a different but lower reading (but not parking the needle where it should be) further confirming the above comments that it the switch may have a tile in this! OK I will just have this be my backup camera and use my iPhone light meter and sunny 16 until it visits John ;-)