Olympus OM-1n : Back in the SLR game.
I’ve been merrily shooting with my Leica M2 for the past 8 months or so and couldn’t ask for a more enjoyable camera to shoot 35mm film with. To be honest, I wasn’t totally sold on the whole rangefinder thing after using nothing but SLR cameras previously. However, the experience has been really positive and I’ve felt immediately at home using the system, despite no longer seeing through the lens so to speak. I still have a couple of SLRs knocking about, my Dad’s Minolta 7000 is hiding away in a drawer, a bit too electronic for my liking but it captured so many memories of my childhood I’ll never part with it. Another in the collection is an Olympus OM-1 which I bought a fair few years ago and was in fact the first camera I bought when I decided to start shooting film again. It’s a nice little camera, a bit rough around the edges though and certainly appears as though it’s been well used in its lifetime.
A few months ago I was debating the idea of getting another OM-1 in my head, one in nicer condition preferably, which I could use for taking photos of Poppy. The M2 is great but I don’t have any longer lenses for it, nor did I want to pay the premium for getting any more M mount glass.. I already have a 100mm 2.8 Zuiko lens that cost the grand total of £25 so if I could get hold of a body for a reasonable price I’d be golden. Not long after, while doing the usual rounds on eBay, I came across an OM-1n in lovely condition and in my preferred silver. Before I could even think about it, I’d hit the ‘buy it now’ button and a couple of days later it landed on the doormat. Unbeknownst to me, the excellent condition of the camera unfortunately didn’t reflect in the working condition as after a few dry fires I discovered that some of the shutter speeds weren’t firing and the mirror would get stuck in the up position. The light meter was also on the blink, the indicator moving up and down the same regardless of the ISO selected or whether the meter switch was in the on or off position - not good! I could have returned it, but given how great the camera looked and the reasonable price I paid for it, I decided to invest some more money in having the camera repaired. Easy peasy? Apparently not. The first repair company I approached inspected the camera but couldn't complete the repairs as they didn’t have the required parts, it needed new shutter speed gears which aren’t readily available but they recommended another place that might be able to help. Long story short, I eventually tracked down a company called Luton Camera Repairs who confirmed they had the parts but it would be a bit of a wait.
Two months later and the OM-1n was back in my hands with a new lease of life. The shutter speed assembly had been rebuilt, along with a full service, light meter repaired and calibrated and the battery circuit modified to take the more readily available 1.5v battery type. They also replaced the light seals, an awkward job which I’ve tried many times but looking at Luton Camera Repairs they obviously have their technique down. Needless to say, I was super impressed with the work they’d done and would certainly recommend them to anyone in the UK looking to have their own camera repaired.
I figured a test roll was in order to double check everything was working as it should, so I loaded up a roll of ColorPlus 200 and started things off with a photo walk with a mate around one of my favourite places to take photos, the University of East Anglia campus.
I’m really pleased with the images and the camera performed faultlessly. The only bad point I can raise is that we weren’t gifted with much light during our time at the UEA and with 200 ISO film I was frequently having to open up to f4 or below, which isn’t ideal for keeping everything as sharp as possible. A few of them were shot at 1/60th to keep the aperture smaller but since I haven’t shot the OM-1 at slower speeds I wasn’t confident that shooting at slower speeds would be okay - one of the big benefits of the M2 is it’ll shoot 1/30th with ease! Some of the images are a bit ‘mushy’ but I’m keen to take the camera out again when its a bit brighter and maybe do a side by side with the Leica, who doesn’t love a blind comparison ‘ey!
Also, going to be kicking off our Thursdays Archive blog again soon on this website which I will link to in the near future, we’re looking forward to sharing more of our adventures very soon.
Larry