Hello!
I've been on the list for some time now, put haven't posted anything yet,
so I think it's time to introduce myself (and my Zuiko :) ). My name is
Mattias Tidlund, and I live in Sweden. My occupation at the moment is as a
university student. I'm having a break from my computer science studies and
recently I started my second semester reading Pedagogics. I live in a town
called 'Norrköping' together with my girlfriend.
I'm rather new to photography as a serious hobby, I think I started to look
seriously at it about a year ago. I mostly shoot black and white, which I
develop and enlarge myself in out bathroom. Sometimes I even shoot slides,
and some negative color film on parties. The coming spring and summer I
plan to visit a nearby zoo called "Kolmårdens djurpark" (in fact one of the
biggest zoos in Europe!) and take a lot of pictures of the animals there.
I've alreade bought season tickets!
I started with my fathers C*n*n AV-1 and a normal zoom. Last spring one of
my girlfriends relatives who knew I was in to photography told me that he
had an old Olympus that didn't work and wondered if I was interested in
having it. He told me that the mirror was stuck, and he couldn't get it
working. So I received the camera which showed to be an OM-10 with an Zuiko
50/1.8 MIJ. I didn't really thought that I could make it work, because the
guy is an engineer, and I was convinced that he had really tried to make it
work.
When I got the camera home, I started to read about the OM:s on the web,
and found out that if the mirror is stuck half-way up, it might be due to
power loss. It was a Sunday night, and all the shops were closed, so I
hooked up the battery chamber to a small 3V DC power supply, and guess
what! The camera worked! Nowadays I mainly use this camera because I really
like shooting with a prime lens, it will keep me focused on the composition
in a different way than a zoom.
About a month ago I realized that I needed a camera body that could give me
a descent manual mode. I found a very cheap OM-1 for sale, together with an
unknown lens. The guy who owned it has got it from his father, and didn't
know anything about it, He send it to me, and I didn't had to pay until I
had checked it out. The camera showed up and i realized that the lens was a
piece of junk, it was totally stuck. I couldn't even tell what brand it
was, 'cause the front ring was missing. The camera was dirty, but in good
condition. The shutter seemed to work OK. When i put my new, highly
illegal, PX625 in it, I immediately realized that the meter didn't work. I
took out the battery and it was hot! Probably there were a short circuit
somewhere. I grabbed my multi meter (not a Fluke, but a Tillquist!) and the
result confirmed my suspicion.
I removed the bottom and found that there was an insulating piece missing
at the bigger of the two screws holding the battery chamber. I removed the
battery chamber and jerry-rigged the battery, unfortunately the meter still
didn't work, but the short circuit was gone. I gave up my attempt to fix it
by myself, maybe I could do without a built-in meter.
I loaded film into the camera, and by using the OM-10 as a meter i shot a
test roll to se that the shutter times were accurate. The result was very
good. So i called the guy who owned it and got the price down to 350 SEK
(that's about $40). I think it was a good deal despite the dead meter.
So here I am with two bodies and one Zuiko. On the top of my wish list is a
135 and a 28. Today I found a very nice and clean 135/3.5 Silvernose. The
price was 350 SEK ($40). Is this a good deal? I suppose the 135/3.5
Silvernose aren't multi coated, or am I wrong? Maybe it is just stupid
stinginess buying a 135/3.5 instead of 135/2.8?
// Mattias
Mattias Tidlund
mtd98005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://rundfunk.ath.cx/photos/
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