OM10 Woes

mrred · Sep 29, 2009

I have 2 om10's and I just noticed I have an issue with framing with the manual adapter. When I use the manual adapter, syncing above 60 seems to give me an incomplete frame. When in auto mode, and above 60, the frame is complete. Exposures are always fine. It's like the curtain hesitates before firing.

Now, I have 2 manual adapters and 2 OM10's with the same result. Every body/adapter combination has been tried. The consistentcy leads me to believe that it must be something I am doing wrong.

Ideas?

Anscojohn · Sep 29, 2009

Let me see. IIRC, those adapters plug in somewhere. Make sure the plugs are polished nice and clean and shiny.

John Koehrer · Sep 29, 2009

It won't sync at over 1/60 & give you a full frame. The flash is tripped by the opening curtain and at 125 the closing curtain is already in the film aperture.
If you're using a dedicated OM flash it's setting the sync speed at 1/60.

mrred · Sep 29, 2009

John Koehrer said:
It won't sync at over 1/60 & give you a full frame. The flash is tripped by the opening curtain and at 125 the closing curtain is already in the film aperture.
If you're using a dedicated OM flash it's setting the sync speed at 1/60.

I was using studio flash that I use 125 & 250 with my Nikons. But you raise a point. I will take it outside and set it with an external meter. If it gives the full frame in daylight, that's all it is and I can live with that.

timk · Sep 29, 2009

What you describe is normal behavior if you try and sync at faster than the cameras sync speed (1/60 in this case)

mrred · Sep 30, 2009

timk said:
What you describe is normal behavior if you try and sync at faster than the cameras sync speed (1/60 in this case)

I was under the impression that this was a strobe limitation and not the camera.

Xmas · Sep 30, 2009

John Koehrer said:
It won't sync at over 1/60 & give you a full frame. The flash is tripped by the opening curtain and at 125 the closing curtain is already in the film aperture.
If you're using a dedicated OM flash it's setting the sync speed at 1/60.

No you need to fire the flash when the shutter is fully open, e.g. 1/60 or slower. Other wise you get a photo with the closing curtain visible...

Noel

Anscojohn · Sep 30, 2009

Xmas said:
No you need to fire the flash when the shutter is fully open, e.g. 1/60 or slower. Other wise you get a photo with the closing curtain visible...

Noel

*******

Yup.

Rick A · Sep 30, 2009

I have owned two OM-10's and two OM-1's and an OM-4--the only one that will sync at speeds over 1/60 is the OM-4 IF I use an F-280 flash. The F-280 is designed to flash in "bursts" instead of a single flash. At speeds greater than 1/60, you freeze the image of the shutter curtain in the frame.
Rick

dynachrome · Sep 30, 2009

All of the OM cameras except for the Cosina-made OM2000 have horizontally running cloth shutters. A horizontally running shutter has to cover 36mm while a vertically running shutter only has to cover 24mm. Over time all high end SLR makers changed over to vertically running shutters. Olympus came up with a novel way of using its horizontally running cloth shutter with higher synch speeds by making a flash which pulsed or flashed many times while the slit was traveling across the film plane. I don't know whether any other camera maker used this method. The Nikon FM2/FM2N/FE2 cameras have a top shutter speed of 1/4000 and vertically running shutters. This enables them to synch at a higher speed.

John Koehrer · Sep 30, 2009

mrred said:
I was using studio flash that I use 125 & 250 with my Nikons. But you raise a point. I will take it outside and set it with an external meter. If it gives the full frame in daylight, that's all it is and I can live with that.

It's an older cloth curtain focal plane shutter, most of these sync at 1/60. It will work with the studio flash but only at 1/60 or slower.
You can check operation just by opening the back & watching the film gate when you trip the camera, it's easy to see the cutoff with faster speeds. The bright section will get smaller with faster speeds.

John Koehrer · Sep 30, 2009

Xmas said:
No you need to fire the flash when the shutter is fully open, e.g. 1/60 or slower. Other wise you get a photo with the closing curtain visible...

Noel

That's what I said "it won't sync at over 1/60".

The Nikon F100 will sync at higher speeds using the same method as the OM's that Dynachrome refers to, but only with some Nikon flash units. I don't know about the F5&6 but would be surprised if they didn't.

John Hermanson · Sep 30, 2009

Open the back, hold camera about a foot away and watch through the shutter how flash sync is cut off if you go above 1/60. Most horizontally tavelling shutters are limited to this shutters speed. VERTICAL shutters found in canons and such have a shorter distance to travel and thus allow a higher flash sync speed. John, www.zuiko.com

mrred · Sep 30, 2009

Thanks for the insight. A new lesson every day..

wiltw · Sep 30, 2009

As stated, the horizontal shutter curtain travel was limited to 1/60 for X-sync. Some cameras with early vertical travel curtains allowed up to 1/125. The Olympus F280 spread the light emission across a longer period of time, which permitted higher synch speeds but with reduced power from the flash even with horizontal curtain travel. Modern dSLR's use newer design vertical blades to achieve 1/200 (24 x36 mm frames) or 1/250 (APS-C). HSS capability on current dLSR flash is similar to F280 in terms of spreading light across longer output period with corresponding drop in power.

timk · Oct 1, 2009

The F280 is a specialist flash and has a unique feature that lets it sync at all speeds. Completely out of the realm of 99.9% of the uses of flash in photography and you should disregard it in this case as your camera won't even support this feature

Regardless of the flash unit (studio strobe / handheld / dedicated / auto / manual), you will have this limitation on the OM-10.

You don't have this limitation on cameras with leaf shutters because the shutter is much smaller and will open & close much faster. One of the advantages of a leaf shutter over a focal plane shutter!!

Hamster · Oct 1, 2009

What about trying the OM-10 on Manual Adapter mode without adapter?

Xmas · Oct 1, 2009

John Koehrer said:
That's what I said "it won't sync at over 1/60".

John

I was attempting to agree with you, the 'No' was for the OP, not you sorry...

Noel

John Koehrer · Oct 1, 2009

Xmas,
I misunderstood, sorry.
You can come home now, all is forgiven.

John Hermanson · Oct 2, 2009

F280 flash will do super FP flash up to 1/2000th shutter speed only with OM-3Ti, 4T, 4Ti. OM-10 set to manual adapter without the adapter in place should set the camera to 1/45th of a second shutter speed. If the body has oil on the magnet, all bets are off. :rolleyes: John

Xmas · Oct 2, 2009

may be - but the OM-1 synch speed is 1/60 and there is a warning in the camera instruction book which says: "If an electronic flash other than the T32 or T20 is used with the Manual Adapter, sometimes the shutter is not released at the speed you set on the Adapter due to the noise of the flash." ?

Noel

wiltw · Dec 10, 2009

OM10 has a horizontal motion FP shutter curtain, and that was generally limited to 1/60 as max synch speed. Cameras with vertical travel FP shutters, like Topcon D1, had 1/125 max shutter speed. It wasn't until Olympus came out with the OM-4 and the F-280 flash was faster shutter speed allowable, and only with that flash.

OM10 Woes

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