Frank Wijsmuller wrote:
>Terry and Tracey wrote:
>
>>The Trip 35 is based on the Olympus Pen EES, but is a little larger.
>>It has a sharp 40/f2.8 D.Zuiko lens, selenium meter, zone focus, ASA
>>range of 25-400, Auto and Flash modes (distances and mode are
>>visible in VF), hot shoe, etc.
Actually, I was the one who wrote the above. Foxy is not to blame :-)
>I heard about problems with selenium meters once, wearing down in
>about twenty to thirty years. Meaning that Trip 35's are due to have
>upcoming problems with their light metering. I could be wrong, but if
>I'm not; how do you test for a defect or near defect selenium meter?
It is true that selenium cells of that era do deteriorate with age.
Some repair people can replace the old selenium with new, modern
selenium elements which are much more sensitive and more durable.
Of course, this is quite expensive, and so the procedure is only
applied to collectible cameras.
Olympus used good quality selenium in their cameras, and most Pens,
Trips, and Auto-Eye cameras that I encountered had good working meters.
Selenium meters have no OFF switches, and so keeping the lens cap on
probably prolongs their lives (is this really true?).
Testing Pens and Trips is easy: set a low ASA value (50 or less),
point the lens to a a moderately well lit (daylight) room interior,
and try to release the shutter. You should get the red flag, and
the shutter won't fire. Set ASA value to 200 or more, and the camera
should fire. Not very scientific, and clearly no indication of the
meter accuracy, but good for verifying whether the meter is alive.
Cheers,
/Gary Schloss.
Studio City, CA
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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