Yep, got another Olympus camera. This deal was too good to pass up. Its the OMSP (spot/program). Quite similar to my OM2n, however this has a few extra nifty features. First of all the most obvious one is that it has a spot meter for tricky lighting conditions. Yeah, its not as advanced as modern day metered cameras, but its still pretty decent. I’ve managed fine without spot metering in the past, but this new addition will create a few more opportunities now. Secondly it has an an LCD meter display instead of the meter needle in the OM2n. This should make things a hell of alot easier when shooting at night, as it’s given me problems in the past. Also it has a built in hot shoe, as opposed to the removable ones that were prone to cracking (mine never has though). Plus a full auto and a program mode, which i’ll try out eventually. Oh and last but not least, its black, which is just cool All of this, and its still the same size as my OM2n. The OM2SP (or OM2S) have never gained the same popularity as the OM1(n),OM2(n),OM3Ti and OM4Ti series cameras. They have the reputation of being unreliable, or eating up batteries etc. But im not sure how accurate these claims are, and i’ve spoken to professional camera repairers who in their far greater experience than mine agree. It may of got this reputation because it’s more or less based on the OM4 which contains some circuitry that cannot really be replaced if it fails. Because of that, it all of a sudden becomes a camera prone to faults, which is false. They do drain batteris doing nothing however, but i never store mine with the batteries in them anyway.
I think alot of the time camera geeks like to rubbish brands, models, techniques, etc for the sake of it. This is pretty clear on just about any camera forum or bulletin board you visit. The general consensus decides “yeah thats rubbish”, then opinionated keyboard warriors perpetuate the misconception, so someone says “i heard this isnt any good” “yeah i heard that too, must be true”. The Internet never lies hey! Generally these are same type of people who enjoy taking photos of brick walls and comparing barrel distortion and pixel density(for digital cameras), instead of going out to take photos of things with any real value/interest. Sure theres nothign wrong with comparing and testing equipment, but if thats all you do then you need to get a life. Anyway, enough talking crap. The more people think they’re no good, the cheaper i can get them for Here it is here, with a pristine 35-70mm zoom & lens hood, and pristine Sunpak Auto flash.. Actually everything is pristine, i doubt the camera has been used more than a few times. It also came with a huge amount of brochures and booklets all in this awesome retro bag that i’ll have to try and get a photo of.
Here are some quick photos of it all
Group shot:

New camera = new light seals… Actually these ones were pretty decent and probably would of been ok, But i had all the stuff infront of me so decided to change them all. Used nail polish remover this time to get rid of the old stuck on foam which worked so much better than the stuff i used last time…

Was pretty late at night, and the light in my room is useless so i had to shoot this at 800 iso.. Ugly digital grain galore… (You may notice i took the Gold sticker off the body, it was shitting me)

Well i just bought another film camera. This one was purchased for the pricey sum of 1 cent Yep, one cent, with a flash and a bag too. And when i won the auction the guy asked “So do you want to come and pick it up? Or should i post it?” um…
I couldnt find a 1 cent piece so it was posted I took some quick pictures of it you can see below. I also managed to find a lens cover for it that was in the bag of accessories i bought a week or so ago, so that was a nice surprise too.
The camera has a great little multi coated 4 element D.Zuiko 40mm f2.8 lens that i’ve seen produce some brilliant results. It doesnt use any batteries but has a solar-powered selenium light meter with an automatic mode and two shutter speeds (1/200 in auto mode and 1/40 for flash sync). Everything works perfectly on it, but i need to replace a light seal as the camera is pretty old. I think its one of the earlier models, they were made from 1967- 1984. Quite a long time.
I’ve already put a roll of film in it with the dodgey light seals just for fun. I wonder if any will turn out.

yeah, it needs a clean too..

just heaps busy…
Between all of my assignments, work, friends coming from and going overseas, plus all the Christmas rush, i havent had much time to post anything up here for a while. I’m still taking photos which is great, but havent got most of them developed yet. Its a bit frustrating, as the curiosity is killing me. Damn i wish there was a decent film developer that was local, so i didnt have to travel half way across the city. Next week hopefully i’ll be getting 3 more rolls developed. Fingers crossed they turn out ok =/
Oh, one thing thats been pretty cool is a nice little eBay purchase i made the other week.
I scored a mixed bag of Olympus goodness for next to nothing. I didnt know exactly what was in it until i got it home, but i was plesantly surprised. From the (really dodgey)pictures below you can see the bag and all of these accesories that came with it. The cool part is that most are genuine Olympus too and all are in top condition. I’m pretty happy as i’ll be putting most of it to use.

These pictures are from the same roll i mentioned in the previous post. These were taken in Melbourne (hence the title), and im quite pleased with them (if you couldnt already tell, haha).
I think i might try and sharpen these pictures up though. For example you can hardly make the persons face out in the first one, eventhough the print and negative contain enough detail to see his facial features very clearly. Anyway, enough complaining, its my fault that i just didnt get the photo lab to scan them! (i didnt expect any pictures to turn out)

Well i just got my first ever roll of film developed from my Olympus OM2n and im very pleased with the results. Actually, im just pleased with the fact that the camera even worked! I wasnt sure if the light meter would still work after 30 years, and i wasnt certain how well i’d changed the light seals, so i was very happy when everything seemed to work as it should.
One frustrating thing however is my film scanner. It’s just a cheap flatbed scanner and with a film negative attachment. I really need a proper one, as the one im using doesnt capture anywhere near enough detail and makes the pictures looks too grainy (more than normal).
But i thought i’d post some up anyway, im still pleased with the results, especially considering it was my first ever go with a manual focus camera, and essentially a test roll with this new camera.

These are just a few taken around my house and at dad’s studio. As i said before, the scanner just doesnt pick up anywhere near as much detail as it should be… Next time i’ll use a proper scanner.

This is my other toy, another Olympus but this time the OM2n model. The one i have is in near perfect condition, with hardly any wear on the body at all. I doubt it has been used much in its life time so far, but that’s about to change!
Eventhough it was in such good condition, the batteries and light seals needed to be replaced. So i ordered some new silver oxide batteries (no the alkaline type), and then started my search for some new light seals. I stumbled on the kits made by Jon Goodman and ordered one after reading so many good reports. The light seal kit came today, so i really wanted to get started on it. This is what i did :

Below you will see a couple of pics of the old light seals. They have deteriorated quite a bit over time, and have just turned into black sticky muck basically.

The first step was to remove the remaining old seals. This was done using solvent and this nifty little bamboo stick that came with the light seal kit. It didn’t come out as easy as i thought, and took quite alot of time to scrape it all out. Next time i’ll use a more powerful solvent, the only one i had was some crappy biodegradable/environmentally friendly variety. Which just means its weak shit.

Next, i had to put the new foam light seals in. First i put in new rail slot on the back. Then a nice new fabric hinge seal. Both were pretty simple to do.

After that i had to move onto the hard bit, the mirror damper. This was actually really tricky for a couple of reasons. First of all, the area is physically quite hard to get to, and it was hard to get any light in there to see what you were doing (i should of done it during the day with some natural light). The other difficult part was actually cutting the foam to size. Adhesive backed foam cut at 2mm wide doesn’t want to keep its shape, and its easy to not get a bad cut. Using a Stanley Knife i managed to get it first go, but there has to be a better way of doing it. Below you can see one of the two “L” shaped pieces of foam i had to cut. It looks alot easier than it was!

After the mirror damper i was finished, and now have a camera with fresh light seals. The next step is the real fun bit, taking photos. I’ll find out if my light seals work, haha.

Heres a quick picture of my new toy i picked up today for the huge sum of $11.
It’s an Olympus OM10 with manual adapter, plus all the accessories you can see in the photo, including a power winder, 2 flashes, a bag, a couple of sigma lenses and a zuiko 50mm f1.8. Oh and 3 normal compact film cameras that she had lying around. I’m pretty happy with it all And yes it all works which is a plus. But i’ve still ordered a light seal kit and some new batteries for it (eventhough the old ones still worked).
I cant wait to put some film through it and take some pictures!

Ever dreamt of having a camera made from GOLD? Neither..
But this thing is pretty impressive. The camera in question is a limited edition gold plated Olympus OM-2n SLR from the early 80’s.
This actually isnt the only gold plated Olympus model (or gold plated camera in general), however it is the rarest with only 20 copies ever made (as opposed to 25 of the OM-1).
The entrie camera including the flash shoe is covered in gold with crocodile skin (classy hey). A golden camera is no good without a lens, so it was supplied with the a Gold Zuiko MC Auto-Zoom f=35-70 1:36.
This edition was apparently made by Olympus Japan and given to selected employees. They rarely come up for sale, but when they do they’re quite expensive as you’d imagine. I found records of one on eBay for a starting price of $3500 US, unfortunately i dont know the final selling price.
For the time being i’ll stick to my cameras without Gold plating, however i’m in the market for a normal Olympus OM1, OM2, or OM4 as they’re fantastic cameras.

for some more pics and info on the gold om-2n visit HERE

for more info on the Olympus OM range visit HERE