OK folks -- Here is a preliminary report on the "Brian Huber" 4t from
Columbus Camera. I bought the thing and it arrived today!
The bad news: This has to be the ugliest camera I have ever seen. Heavy
"brassing" (Titaniuming?) on both top and bottom plates. Corrosion-like
products on some of the black finished parts. Rust around the edges of the
back and a few rusty traces in the mirror box. The pentaprism got a minor
ding on the front, pushing the backlight window in a bit -- and the display
is dimmer than it should be -- or at least dimmer than my OM-4. The back is
missing major areas of paint. The memory/clear rotary switch was frozen in
position (a careful tap with a wooden mallet via a dowel got it working
again). The little black reset button on the lens mount had been pushed way
down in its hole (a little prying got it back up). The flash contacts in
the hot shoe were a bit green (sanded most of that off). Cover for motor
drive/winder missing. Foam around the back looks poor. ie. -- pretty
discouraging right out of the box!
The good news: This is certainly a 4t. The batteries in the camera were
GPA76 alkalines, and the battery check did produce the blinking Brian
mentioned. Replacing these batteries with the correct silver cells gave me
a steady red light that dutifully shuts off after about 25 sec (actually,
the camera was shipped in the battery check position and had turned itself
off). All functions work as they should, including the memory/clear and
lens removal reset problems mentioned above. Film wind is pretty good (but
this isn't an OM-1). The shutter speeds seem correct. Self timer works
fine. After a bit of cleaning, pounding and poking I ran a roll of film
thru the camera -- both auto and manual modes worked as they should -- pix
were great (tho the camera hasn't helped my composition at all!). T32 flash
works fine.
A beater? Well. probably, but it does work fine and was certainly worth
the $150 -- tho not a whole lot more (except on E-Bay of course :-) ).
Thought you might be interested (and thanks Brian!)
Craig
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|