Sorry for taking so long to reply. I discovered ( mid-week ) that "the system"
thought I was on Vacation. Yet as far as I can tell I didn't do anything to
make
this happen! Thanks to all those who supplied the various pieces.
I finally got to take a good look at it this afternoon. I've reported my
findings below each of the comments various people made.
All included there was the OM-4, 35-70, 75-150?, 200/f4, 50/3.5 macro, winder2
&
the usual bits 'n pieces. The non-Oly pieces were the no-name flash & filters.
All the lenses need cleaning to remove grime & dust & the 200/4 also needed
polishing ( or something ) to remove cleaning marks from the front element.
A quick test to ascertain if the OM 4 has the newer, less battery drain
circuit is to turn on the 'battery test' and see if the light shuts off (30
secs I think) if it shuts off it is likely the new circuit (or the batteries
just died)
The light stayed on for over 1 minute, whilst I tested other functions.
In addition to Gord's good advice, I would also take in my own set of 357s
and fire off the range of shutter speeds in manual mode and then ask if
they have a winder and make sure it works with a winder. If you don't get
some kind of period in which a return is possible, then I would walk.
I think it is very important to make sure the spot metering works. I got an
OM-4T from KEH once that had to go back because it just didn't meter. An
OM-4 can work fine in both auto and manual mode but the spot metering not
work. In a once over, even the KEH guys can miss stuff like that.
Not being overly educated about using spot metering I didn't try this. The
meter
did seem accurate enough for my uses. Lately I've been happy using
centre-weight
OM-2 metering or F16 Rule, or guessing! There was a winder, but I never use one
& didn't try it, given the other possible problems the camera had & actual
state
of the lenses ( worse that mine ), in need of a good CLA.
Not sure how to best answer this, but take along some new SR44
batteries and a flash you know to be working ok and then try everything
you can think of! Auto at a range of apertures, looking at bright
light and into a dark recess, manual through the shutter speeds, with
flash, self timer, etc. You should at least find something glaringly
wrong with it, maybe not that 125th is 150th, but then at least it's
only a CLA. I suppose you would not be able to pass judgment on the
film advance mechanics, but you could take along a film past its use
date to sacrifice a few frames towards this end also.
My "Not exactly scientific" test was to compare shutter speeds on auto, with
differing lighted backgrounds ( & lights ) in the shop. As far as I could see
or
hear they all seemed to identical, with the same aperture.
Also, w/batteries, remove the lens, open the back, and wind and fire the
shutter while looking through the back. Be sure that at high speed
(1/2000th, etc.), you get light all the way across the focal aperture (the
rectangle where the picture is made). If it's dark on one side, it's got a
problem!
I tested this ( on manual ) with both eyes at the same time & individually.
There seemed to be some darkness on the right-hand side.
On auto, the shutter should open for a long time with the lens cap covered (~2
minutes for an OM-2N, ~4 minutes for an OM-4(T) in spot mode).
I'm not to sure if it was in spot mode ( didn't remember to read the manual! ).
But it seemed that the shutter only wanted to use something about 1/60. The
speed dial was set to a different speed ( about 1/2 or 1/1 ).
On the plus side there was minimal brassing & the manual shutter speeds seemed
accurate.
I didn't remember to check the lens reset button.
By then I had lost interest in buying it at anywhere near the asking price.
If they've still got it in a month or so. I'll see if they'll accept a
substantially lower price. In the meantime, "first come, first served".
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