This morning I drove to the newest branch of Cooper's Camera Mart where they
were having a Canon Day. A technician from Strauss Photo Technical Service in
Washington, D. C. was on hand.
When I handed him my two Olympus bodies, the 4 and the 4T, he reacted with a
question of what was going on. Technically the free camera check was for the
Canon cameras. I told him that the salesman at the main store sent me. The
gentleman behind me had an Olympus P&S in his hand and I think he was there on
his own.
As far as the film pressure plate was concerned, the technician thought that it
was O.K. He reasoned that if there was some problem, it should show up in every
frame. I guess that our conversation got interrupted with something and I did
not continue the argument with him. He readjusted the plate where it should
have been.
He also found, however, that the camera needed a new light seal and high
shutter speeds were quite off (No 1/2000 sec for example). The technician said
that if I were using high shutter speeds in auto exposure mode, the slower
shutter speeds would show up as overexposure. I thought that on the 4 and 4T,
the shutter speeds in the automatic exposure mode were controlled
electronically.
He also found a few things wrong with my 4T including smaller departures from
the specs in shutter speeds. As my 4 was still under warranty, I asked the
store to pay for a new light seal, to which they agreed. The cost estimate was
around $30. Shutter adjustments, however, would be more than $100 and I did not
press for this repair.
I was wondering on my way home how cost effective it would be to buy a bargain
camera body and a lens. So far it has worked as a good photo equipment lesson
after another. Since the store would allocate about $30 for the lens, I guess I
paid $145 for the body. This amount would not be sufficient to cover for the
needed repair exceeding $100. The store's warranty policy is that they would
either do the needed repair within reasonable cost or refund the money with the
return of the item sold.
In essence, I will have to wait about two weeks to see whether the realigned
pressure plate would improve my repeated shots with the same settings other than
the self-timer activation since I left the newest branch without the 4.
Last Saturday I ran the tests to determine whether my new setup of the Cullmann
Magic 2 tripod with and without a new telephoto support I bought from Japan
would work in the critical shutter speeds. I used the 4 and my M-1 for these
tests and I discovered the blurred results in the second and the third of the
shots made with the telephoto support on the lens combo (200mm/5 plus B300) with
cable release. The first of these shots were acceptable. The shots with the
self-timer and the telephoto support came out well.
It looks like that I would have to repeat these tests on the 4T.
One comment for Olaf et. al., I, for one, would not think that the triple combo
of the 2X TC + 135mm/2.8/3.5 + B300 or the like would work well. You need a
pretty good telephoto support than the short one I have is to make it workable
if at all.
Tomoko Yamamoto
mailto:tomokoy@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.charm.net/~tomokoy/
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