Olympus OM-1

I got my OM-1 a while back on e-bay. I had lusted after these revolutionary cameras since I was at university 30 years ago. At that time they were way outside my budget, now of course they can be picked up quite cheaply. I ran a couple of films though it with good results but the on/off switch was damaged and before long it broke off completely. Recently I decided to get the OM-1 fixed and thanks to a recommendation from the Facebook OM group I found a guy in the UK who does quality camera repairs cheaply. This is the guy: www.cam-rep.co.uk

The camera came back with new light seals and a new on/off switch and seems to work fine.

This is a 'self portrait' taken in a mirror from the test film I put through the camera when I got it back. The repair guy suggested that I set the meter 1 stop faster than the film (400ASA for 200ASA film) as he tested the meter and found it was a bit weak.

The question that arises with OM-1 cameras is what battery to use. The original mercury cells are no longer available. I have been using hearing aid batteries (1.4volt 675ZA - you can get theses in Boots the chemist in the UK). However these batteries don't last very long. I though I would try so called Wein cells. These can be purchased in the UK from the Small Battery Company (www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/) but are quite a bit more expensive that the 675 hearing aid batteries (£5.20 ea) but are supposed to last a lot longer.

I'm still not convinced the meter is really accurate so as soon as I have some time I'm going to do a proper series of test shots to calibrate the meter properly