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Markus
Tinkerer
Username: Markus
Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 04:07 pm: | 
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Flashmatic on my Olympus 35RC seems not to be working. I bought the camera off Ebay and mostly everything works after re-soldering the battery hot lead to the contact on the battery compartment. However, when I set the aperture ring to the flash symbol and the shutter speed dial to 30, the aperture stays at the smallest setting, no matter what guide number or focusing distance I select. Perhaps I am doing something wrong... could somebody comment? Can this be fixed, if it is broken?
On a different note, the two aperture blades on this camera do not create an opening that is symmetrical about the center of the lens. That is, one of the blades opens a bit further than the other, resulting in an opening that is not quite centered. I have seen this before in an Olympus Trip 35 and the first roll of film came out fine on the 35RC, so I am not too worried about it. But perhaps someone could check their 35RC at, say, f/5.6, to see if this is normal, or not.
- Markus |
Markus
Tinkerer
Username: Markus
Post Number: 2
Registered: 08-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 09:08 pm: |
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I figured it out myself... here it goes. Unscrewed the lens retaining ring, and took the plastic ring that contains the ISO setting mechanism off (carefully, it is connected to the rest of the camera with two wires, but there is enough slack to take it off and let it dangle to the side). Then, in the lens barrel, unscrew the three cross head screws (not the ones that keep the actual lens in its place!) Two of the screws can easily be lifted out with tweezers, the other one will not come out easily but it can stay in its place as long as it is loose. Now lift the next piece of the lens barrel off (you will have to carefully pull the two cables through the hole to get it off, let it dangle to the side). BTW, there is some sort of shaft of about 3/4in length that I had to fiddle with to get this piece of lens barrel off. Now you can see a lever that is engaged when the aperture ring is turned to the flash position. One side of it was bent down enough that is was not running in the guide ring (the one where you set the GN of the flash). I bent that lever up a bit and tada! after putting the lens back together, the GN stuff works now.
To fix the asymmetrical aperture, I removed one more layer of the lens barrel (three more cross head screws) and then had to take the two aperture blades off bend the cam that opens and closes them so that it runs in the center of it's slot (when you look at it you know what I mean).
Now I'm just waiting for the new leatherette from camaraleather.com and I'm ready for my trip to Prague...
I hope this write-up will help somebody someday.
- Markus |
Charlie
Tinkerer
Username: Charlie
Post Number: 91
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 20, 2007 - 05:49 am: |
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I like to hear success stories. You give me motivation to try again (in spite of my past failures). |
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