Perhaps your camera was set on "Manual" mode at a very high shutter
speed - in that case, the flash would fire but light from the flash
would reach only the very edge of the frame, if at all. The gap between
the curtains is very small at higher speeds, and the flash fires when
the first curtain reaches the closing edge, leaving only a narrow gap
where light from the flash would reach the film.
If the camera had been set on "Auto" mode, even with the display off, it
would (or _should_) have operated properly. (That's part of why OM-4's,
et al, drain batteries - portions of the circuit are always "on", ready
to operate.)
Gregg Iverson wrote:
>
> On a somewhat related note I recently handed my wife my OM 4T with T32
> attached and asked her to take a few photos for me. I forgot to turn on
> the camera. The flash fired, but the frames are all very dark, only lit by
> lights in the scene. I thought the T32 would go to a full dump if the TTL
> metering wasn't working. Surprise
>
> Gregg
>
> Warren wrote:
>
> >If the batteries are dead, then flash sync does not work as the
circuitry is
> >electrical, not mechanical. I did this once, thinking that I could use the
> >OM-4T for some important pictures with the battery dead, rather than
take the
> >B&W film out of the OM-1. All came back black.
>
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