In my current flurry of restoring and refurbishing the many cameras
scattered around the house (anyone need an Argus?) I took down off the
shelf an old reliable Olympus 35RC. Arter scraping the crust of dust
off the top, I determined that there was a roll of film inside. So...I
decided to take a few pix and see how well everything was working.
First, I discoverd (surprise) that the single AAA battery in the
"cheapest possible flash" was leaking. No problem. (by the way - the
ability of the 35RC to work smoothly with the simplest, cheapest,
weakest shoe mounted flash was, in my opinion, one of it's strongest
points).
Second, I noticed that I couldn't focus worth a damn with it (tying into
the current thread - see, I knew I could do it!). As some may recall,
the 35RC had a very small central window which produced a double image
(from the viewfinder and the "other end" of the rangefinder). The
central window was a nice familiar pale yellow - but the "second image"
was virtually invisible. I *was* able to see (faintly) a very dark line
against a very bright background (say, a tree branch) - but anything
less contrasty than that was invisible.
I remember the focussing as much easier than that. Is this old age
creeping up on my eyes, or something wrong with the rangefinder (perhaps
related to the crust of dust?). If the latter, any guesses on repair
costs? What's a CL&A go for on one of these mini-bricks?
--
Kenneth Sloan sloan@xxxxxxx
Computer and Information Sciences (205) 934-2213
University of Alabama at Birmingham FAX (205) 934-5473
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 http://www.cis.uab.edu/info/faculty/sloan/
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