Well Gents & Ladies, I finally decided that my OM's were at that age where it
is appropriate to look into removing the dreaded pentaprism foam. For sevral
years now I have noted that the foam sealing the backs has been getting a bit
tacky, even one OM 2 on which the foam has has gone beyond tacky to a rather
firm consistancy more like old hardened rubber. Never a light leak as yet so
I have done nothing to them. (1 OM2, 3 OM2n's, and 1 OM1n)
The recent questions about which bodies have the dreaded pentaprism foam
prompted me to finally DO something about it. I can report that thanks to Mark
Dapoz, see url below, the job is easier than I could ever imagine.
http://olympus.dementia.org/Hardware/tutorials/FoamRemoval/index.html
I encountered only one minor hitch on the five cameras, and that was on my
very pristine chrome OM1n, s/n > 1,7xx,xxx, which I think is a late one. I am
pretty sure that it had never been opened before and when I pulled the top off
I
found that there was a screw missing that should have been holding the rewind
shaft guide bracket in place when the top is removed. Also, this camera did
not have the brass spacer between the flash bracket and the plastic piece that
provides the guides for the 2 pins on the flash shoe 4. That said, the
camera went back together nicely, except that when all was back together, there
was
a tiny brass piece left laying on my work space that seemed not to belong.
It is a simple thin, flat piece approximately 0.011" x 1/16" x 1/4", an I have
no idea where it came from. The camera seems to function properly, though I
have not put film through it yet. I will open it up again to install the
missing screw when I have thoroughly tested it with film.
I really appreciate the help of people like Mark Dapoz who take the time and
effort to provide repair text and photos on the internet.
For the record, all five of my OM bodies had pentaprism foam that was badly
deteriorated. None that had gone so far as damaging the prism coating, but far
worse than I expected.
Best regards,
Paul Connet
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