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[OM] When the OMverse is smiling [was Two versions of the OM 2?]

Subject: [OM] When the OMverse is smiling [was Two versions of the OM 2?]
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:04:48 -0700
John Hermanson wrote:
> I see many of the OM-1s with locked up mirrors.  The owner panics, pulls 
> the mirror down with finger, bends all the levers inside. Then mirror 
> lock doesn't work anymore.
>   
Long, long ago, a young Moose bought a second lens (100/2.8) for his 
just out of warranty OM-1on a Friday before he was to leave for a 
vacation in Mexico on Sunday or Monday. While playing around looking 
through the new lens and dry firing the camera, the viewfinder suddenly 
remained blank after a 'shot'.

Careful investigation revealed that no user error had occurred, the 
mirror lock-up was not engaged, the mirror was stuck in up position and 
he seems to recall that the shutter wouldn't wind. So young Moose gently 
pulled the mirror down against moderate resistance with his finger, 
cocked the shutter and fired again. Everything seemed to work except 
that the mirror required manual resetting after every shot. Not the 
ideal situation, but at least he could take pictures with it.

Peering at the cross section of the OM-1 from a photo magazine, it 
appeared that whatever was wrong was fairly deep inside, not a casual 
project while getting ready for the trip. So he packed up the gear and 
the worldwide list of official repair stations. Fortunately, he was 
staying in Mexico City for the first few days and was able to fairly 
easily visit the repair facility there.

In a rather uninviting building in the old Centro, there was an office 
with wooden counter with the banners of all the major Japanese camera 
makes. Not to confidence inspiring. But when up to the counter, one 
could then see off to the left was a metal framed glass room full of 
shiny, immaculate equipment and a couple of Japanese technicians in 
white lab coats. Hmm, looks ok. The nice but clueless young woman on the 
counter listened to our (His late wife was born in Mexico City and spoke 
perfect Spanish) detailed description of the problem. She went off with 
the camera to see the techs.

She came back and said "Muy caro" very expensive. Further detail 
revealed that her idea of expensive and ours were quite different. 
Memory fades, but I think it was something like $27. Even in the early 
'70s, that was considerably less than I could expect to pay in the US. 
Then the key question, how long? Back to the techs, big apology, they 
couldn't possibly get it done today, would tomorrow late morning be ok?

Would it?? OH yeah! So for the expenditure of a few $ and maybe 4 hours 
of their time traveling across the city and back twice, his OM-1 worked 
flawlessly for the rest of the trip. and indeed works today with no 
other problems over the 30 years since, other than foam rot that he was 
able to repair himself.

Moose

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