Bill Watts
Well-Known Member
I admit up front that I am a big fan of Olympus cameras and I just picked up another! This time an Olympus OM-40 (OM-PC to some). Seller on eBay had it at an attractive price and the body was unblemished with no brassing and only the rubber was suffering from oxidation. (easily remedied with some Ethanol and a coat of Armour All) Offered in working condition, body only.
Anyway the shutter was not working out of the box! both curtains travelled together when the shutter was fired and the shutter speed selector had no effect whatsoever. I also noted that the serial number was not the same as the one listed online. Contacted the seller and he explained that the one I had purchased developed a fault similar to this prior to shipping and he substituted a working one. The original has been sent to OM Doctor in Hamburg for repair and he then immediately offered to replace my unit with the repaired one when it came back from Hamburg - no issues no fuss. Excellent service.
Whilst I was waiting, I kept working the camera and, lo and behold! it started working properly in all modes! So I put a roll of Fomapan Classic in it fitted the winder and a 35mm f2 lens and headed out.
I suspect the shutter release magnet was sticking, it is, apparently, a common problem on these cameras. Relatively straight forward to clean I am told.
A couple of photos below from Landungsbrücken and Baumwall, but the camera performed faultlessly actually squeezing 40 frames out of the roll! all properly exposed in program mode.
As the camera was in program mode I do not have any exposure detail as the lens is set to f16 at all times in this mode. The camera determines how much to stop down the lens and selects the shutter speed.
Camera: Olympus OM-40
Lens: Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f2
Film: Fomapan Classic ISO 100
Processed: Ilfotec DD-X 1:4, 5' 48" @22°C, IlfoStop 1', Ilford Rapid Fixer 4'
Scanner: Epson Perfection V600 Photo. 48 bit tiff, 3200DPI
Software: Epson Scan II, Affinity Photo 2
Promenade
Wharf
Entrance to the old Elbe tunnel
Landungsbrücken U-Bahn station platform
Landungsbrücken U-Bahn Station entrance
All in all I think the camera did very well with some quite tricky exposures. I was particularly interested in getting one of these cameras as it is basically a stripped down OM-2SP with out the multipoint metering facility, however it does meter the centre and outer area of the image separately and if there is a large difference in readings it will compute a biased exposure to match. This comes under the proprietary name "ESP". It is also the only double digit film OM that is suitable for use with Motor Drive 2, although it is governed to 3.5 frames per second rather than the 5 frames per second achievable on the single digit OMs. From this I would hazard that the internals have been built more strongly on this model.
Very pleased with this combination, I prefer the 35mm lens when photographing cityscapes as it is possible to get more in from closer where space is sometimes restricted.
For an inexpensive film, Fomapan Classic, particularly when developed in Ilfotec DD-X seems to be a really good performer with fine grain, good acutance, and a nice tonal range. Blacks are quite good too.
I will have to get some more Ilfotec, that was the dregs of my stock, albeit about 3 years old, who says it doesn't keep?
Anyway the shutter was not working out of the box! both curtains travelled together when the shutter was fired and the shutter speed selector had no effect whatsoever. I also noted that the serial number was not the same as the one listed online. Contacted the seller and he explained that the one I had purchased developed a fault similar to this prior to shipping and he substituted a working one. The original has been sent to OM Doctor in Hamburg for repair and he then immediately offered to replace my unit with the repaired one when it came back from Hamburg - no issues no fuss. Excellent service.
Whilst I was waiting, I kept working the camera and, lo and behold! it started working properly in all modes! So I put a roll of Fomapan Classic in it fitted the winder and a 35mm f2 lens and headed out.
I suspect the shutter release magnet was sticking, it is, apparently, a common problem on these cameras. Relatively straight forward to clean I am told.
A couple of photos below from Landungsbrücken and Baumwall, but the camera performed faultlessly actually squeezing 40 frames out of the roll! all properly exposed in program mode.
As the camera was in program mode I do not have any exposure detail as the lens is set to f16 at all times in this mode. The camera determines how much to stop down the lens and selects the shutter speed.
Camera: Olympus OM-40
Lens: Zuiko Auto-W 35mm f2
Film: Fomapan Classic ISO 100
Processed: Ilfotec DD-X 1:4, 5' 48" @22°C, IlfoStop 1', Ilford Rapid Fixer 4'
Scanner: Epson Perfection V600 Photo. 48 bit tiff, 3200DPI
Software: Epson Scan II, Affinity Photo 2
Promenade
Wharf
Entrance to the old Elbe tunnel
Landungsbrücken U-Bahn station platform
Landungsbrücken U-Bahn Station entrance
All in all I think the camera did very well with some quite tricky exposures. I was particularly interested in getting one of these cameras as it is basically a stripped down OM-2SP with out the multipoint metering facility, however it does meter the centre and outer area of the image separately and if there is a large difference in readings it will compute a biased exposure to match. This comes under the proprietary name "ESP". It is also the only double digit film OM that is suitable for use with Motor Drive 2, although it is governed to 3.5 frames per second rather than the 5 frames per second achievable on the single digit OMs. From this I would hazard that the internals have been built more strongly on this model.
Very pleased with this combination, I prefer the 35mm lens when photographing cityscapes as it is possible to get more in from closer where space is sometimes restricted.
For an inexpensive film, Fomapan Classic, particularly when developed in Ilfotec DD-X seems to be a really good performer with fine grain, good acutance, and a nice tonal range. Blacks are quite good too.
I will have to get some more Ilfotec, that was the dregs of my stock, albeit about 3 years old, who says it doesn't keep?
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