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[OM] Battery Adapters for OM-1

Subject: [OM] Battery Adapters for OM-1
From: Joel Wilcox <jowilcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:27:31 -0500
I thought I'd share my latest adventures with my original OM-1, and some
parting shots about battery adapters.  Vivey's question about the MR-9 was
posted as I was writing this.

This is a brief history of my lovely black OM-1MD.  I purchased it in the
early '80s second hand from a friend who was trying desperately to have a
midlife crisis, sell all his stuff, and move to California. It became my
wife's camera and I got her a 35-70/3.5-4.5 to go with it.  (I got it
because it was cheap;  I didn't realize that the lens or the camera for
that matter were really any good.)  She took many nice pictures with it
before succumbing to an Oly P&S (Stylus zoom 35-70 -- no embarrassment).

In the flood of '93 the OM-1 lay on a table top that got wet. It is hard to
remember exact chronology from such a stressful time, but I think almost
immediately I ran it up to a camera repair shop and they cleaned it up.
There was enough moisture inside the camera to start working on the coating
of the lens rear element within that rather short time.

I took no interest in the OM-1 before the repair. Afterwards I shot some
pictures of my toddler and was impressed with both the sharpness and
coloration of the lens.  My wife gave up the OM-1 about this time, so it
became mine entirely.  I ran across a mint 75-150/4 in a pawn shop and
bought it.

On my son's first trip to Hawaii to see the grandparents, I took the OM-1
and the two lenses instead of my big bag of Nikon goodies -- to travel
light.  I bought a bunch of Elite film (which I'd never even tried before)
in all different speeds and just had a ball shooting the old familiar
sights.  I was very happy with the results.  I began the Zuikoholic
haunting of pawn shops and camera stores.

I found a winder I wanted to buy, but it wouldn't work with my OM-1 at the
slower shutter speeds.  I thought it was defective until the clerk put it
on another body and it worked fine at all speeds.  I'd recently discovered
Camtech, so I discussed this with John H. and sent the body off to him.
About the same time, I bought my first used OM-2S -- get this -- as a
backup for the OM-1.  I really fell in love with the OM-2S, but that's
another story.

While the OM-1 was off at Camtech for CLA, I decided also to buy an MR-9
from John, the adapter that allows one to use 357 batteries in the OM-1.
John hadn't started offering his own conversion method yet.

All was well, but I sent the OM-1 to Gary Reese to see whether a recently
CLA'ed OM-1 would be less subject to shutter shudders at one stage in his
tests.  (No dice, but that's also another story.)  Gary tested the shutter
and meter before using it and he discovered some non-linearity in the
meter.  I hadn't noticed this in my shooting, but I tend to bracket anyway.

This last winter I took the OM-1 out to shoot the kids sledding and the
winding mechanism jammed.  So off it went to Camtech again to have this
fixed and to have the meter assessed.  I figured at the same time I would
get John to calibrate the meter so that I could use a 2-series screen in it
as well.

The camera recently came back looking good and working well, but the darn
2-series screens were back ordered.  So to use the OM-1, now calibrated for
a 2-series screen, I would need to adjust the ASA a bit to compensate for
the darker 1-13 screen still in the camera.  But when I compared the OM-1
with the OM-2S, there was a difference of as much as six stops!  So I fired
off a note to John, who said he'd have to have had a really bad day to be
that far off.  He suggested checking the batteries.

The batteries tested fine. Nevertheless I swapped them with another OM-1
body I had bought several years ago.  This body had also been CLA'ed by
John but it had the battery modification that John now offers (with
permanent resistor (diode?) in the circuit to bring voltage down to spec
and a little plastic ring in the battery compartment to keep the 357
battery centered).  When I put everything back together, the meter in my
original OM-1 + MR-9 now came up to where it should be.  The problem would
have to be something flaky in the MR-9 itself.

The MR-9 seems as though it should work well. It is the same shape as the
original mercury battery.  The 357 cell fits inside and there is a diode in
the casing of the MR-9.  My hypothesis is that there may be too many
surfaces that have to make good contact in this system.  That puts more
"stress" on the little battery spring than I think it is good for.

If you have an MR-9 or plan to get one, I suspect it is very important to
check occasionally to make sure it is working right.  Clean the surfaces
regularly with a rough cloth too.  Finally, if you are having work done at
Camtech, I recommend you have John's battery conversion done.  In
conjunction with CLA it is much cheaper than an MR-9 and I suspect it is a
more positive solution.  If you're not interested in a modification quite
so intrusive, then I recommend finding a source of the old mercury
batteries and buying enough of them to give you peace of mind.

It's great to have my original survivor OM-1 back.  When I get that
2-series screen in it, it's gonna be sweet.

Joel Wilcox
Iowa City, Iowa USA

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