My Journey Into Photography: The Saga of my OM-1

A couple of blogs ago I told the tale of my Olympus OM-1 having a tizzy and making me lose confidence in its accuracy. I have also spoken previously of wanting an Olympus OM-1 since childhood and finally getting one in my fifties was proof that childhood dreams can eventually come true. It was with this firmly in my mind that I decided I couldn't just leave my childhood dream sat on a shelf and me feeling sorry for myself so I set about hunting for spares.

Camera servicing and repair can get expensive in a hurry and for the vast majority of folks a decent Camera Technician is the first port of call should anything go awry. I'm one of the minority who would like to have a go at fixing things and mending a film speed dial was surely an easy task, right? I have many years experience at maintaining my motorcycles and keeping them roadworthy so mending a camera is just a case of scale, right?

I had a good think about what I was going to do about it and decided that a replacement top plate was probably the easiest way of mending my beloved OM-1. A swift search of ebay found an OM-1 top plate for not a lot of cash. It arrived a few days later and I got my tools out. No, not my bike maitenance tools, they are far too big. I have a set of small screwdrivers and torx drivers for small stuff like this as my youngest had a habit of putting all kinds of stuff into my CD Player whe he was a toddler. I soon learned how to take it apart to retrieve the offending item and have a working CD player again.

Taking the old top plate off was easy as it is only held by the wind on lever, the rewind crank and the shoe mount nut. Getting it back on was a little fiddly as I soon learned that the light meter on/off switch had a different mechanism on the new top plate than my old one. Thankfully the location hole was the same size for both so I just swapped them over. I then had to fit the new top plate and this is where it got interesting.

I wasn't at all certain that the film speed I had set it to the last time I used it was the correct one. A lot of research soon got me placing everything in the right orientation. It's exactly the same with engines, the valve and ignition timing has to be set right when rebuilding an engine or changing the timing belt. Get it wrong and the engine simply wont work. Once I was happy that everythng was in the right place I put the top plate back on. Thankfully everything appeared to work smoothly and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The proof of a good repair is always in the first use and from what I could tell, my OM-1 was looking good as new. I loaded a roll of Kentmere 400 into it the next day and went for a walk round the local farms. I used three different methods of light metering to check all was well. I put a roll of Tri-x in my Pentax SP500 as it was the only other 400 speed film I had and I know the light meter is accurate. I took my Nikon D90 with me too as I trust the light meter on that and I also used a free android app, Light Meter, on my phone to cross reference my settings.

It took me just a few images to discover my OM-1 was in fine fettle again. My plan of using three different meters was proving itself reliable and I was once again confident that I could use my OM-1 without having that nagging dread in the back of my mind. I call that a success, but that doesn't mean you should do the same. I was always aware that the potential for making a terrible mistake and having to send my OM-1 to have a proper repair was huge. It would also be very embarrassing too.

The next job it needs is to have the resistor changed to allow me to use cheaper, more easily available and longer lasting 1.5 volt batteries than the 1.35 volt wein cell it currently has. However that is a job for a person more qualified than I am. Mechanical stull I can do, electrical stuff is witchcraft. I will send it to my trusted repair wizard to have that work done, but not until I have had some more fun with it and shot a few more rolls of film.

Here are a few of my photo's from my OM-1, you can see more in an album on Flickr by clicking the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Flickr Album Kentmere 400 Olympus OM-1