Olympus itself may have some responsibility for this. As I recall the OM-4
manuals (Part "A" and Part "B") are not models of clarity or completeness.
I'll bet a dollar that they don't say anything about the REQUIRED chemical
composition (Silver Oxide) of the batteries for the 4.
By the way,
1. I gave one of my brothers a OM-G and a tele a few years ago. When I
visited after a couple of years, I asked about the camera and he told he "It's
jammed. I couldn't rewind it." I pushed down the rewind button and rewound it
then asked him if he read the manual I provided. "Well, no."
2. At a wedding, my brother's father-in-law said his clamshell Olympus was
broken. It wouldn't fire. I suggested he replace the batteries. He said, "It
worked just before I left the house. I really love this camera. I took it to
China. I hope it's not broken." In my wedding clothes, I walked across the
street to a pharmacy, bought the battery, and "fixed" it. "You're a genius,"
he said.
3. At my other brother's house, I had a conversation with my brother's
mother-in-law said. It was the first birthday party of her first grandchild.
"How do I use this digital camera?" I said, "Gees, I don't have any idea."
She said, "But you're good with cameras." I said, "Oh, that. As soon as I get
a new camera I read the manual..... Every word of it...... Have you read the
manual?" Ms. Huff, "Well.... no."
When I was a mechanic, I picked up an expression from a guy who was in the
military. RTFM. It means "read-the-stupid-manual" except the appropriate
'military' substitution must be made. Yeah, I know, I'm preaching to the
choir. I know.
Lama
Have you guys noticed that the T32 manual doesn't tell you how to calculate
exposure for the Quarter-power manual mode? It also doesn't call it
"Quarter-power". I labeled the switch position "Q" so I'll know at a glance
it's two stops, the same as the ND4 panel.
> From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> I also believe the OM-4 issues are blown out of proportion compared to the
> occurrence rate (sorry Tom). The 357 silver cells last about a year in
> mine. I replace them during my birth month, whether they need it or
> not. I've had my OM-4 overhauled (thank you John H.), but the reasons had
> nothing to do with battery or circuit problems.
>
> IMHO a very sizeable percentage of the "battery eater" reputation is due to
> the owner not knowing its sensitivity to battery voltage. Those who insist
> on using alkalines or the double-cell battery in one package (it's not an
> AgO) are doomed to replacing batteries very often. Likewise, those who
> throw all their batteries loose into a drawer when they pull them out of
> something are also destined to keep trying to use old batteries that are
> near end of life.
>
> A guy at work bemoaned his "battery hungry" OM-4 would go dead in 3 months
> or less. I finally asked him to pull the cells out and bring them to
> work. He did. One of them was AgO and the other was an alkaline, made by
> different manufacturers. Pulled out a Fluke voltmeter. The AgO was OK,
> but not brand new. AgO's have a slight voltage drop very early and then
> are pretty steady for rest of life. The alkaline was way down in voltage;
> definitely past half-life.
>
> No wonder it didn't work. Asked him where he got his batteries: "I've got
> a drawer full of batteries and root through it until I find the ones I
> need." Asked him if he every disposed of batteries and got "hmmmmmm" for a
> reply. Told him to *buy* a brand new set of 357 watch cells and see what
> happened. He kept on asking me about lower priced alkalines. I insisted
> he get the watch cells and showed him voltage/time curves as the different
> types discharge. He finally did; it miraculously cured his OM-4. Should
> have made a smokin' deal offer to buy his power-hog OM-4, telling him I
> would find a way to live with the problem. Yes, this is anecdotal, but the
> battery "junk drawer" resides in quite a few homes too.
>
> Battery Failure Modes Applicable to More than the OM-4:
> Something accidentally pressing on the viewfinder illuminator button while
> it's being stored (in the camera bag) will drain the batteries very, very
> quickly. Similarly, something pressing slightly on the shutter release
> enough to keep the viewfinder LCD screen powered up continuously will also
> send a set of cells to an early death. These two "failure modes" are the
> common reasons for using the "red" shutter speed position for
> storage. Doing so won't stop the "idle" drain, but the viewfinder
> illuminator and the LCD screen are disabled in the mechanical (red) 1/60th
> and "B" shutter speed positions. They are disabled as soon as the shutter
> speed ring is set to either of the "red" mechanical shutter speeds, and
> cannot be powered up until it's set to one of the "blue" or "black"
> electronic shutter speeds.
>
> I believe that taking due care with batteries to power an OM-4 is the
> secret to fixing many of them that have been labeled as battery eaters.
>
> -- John
>
>
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