john_hermanson2

OM-2S was made for a very short time in the early 80s. Camera was produced for such a short time, in fact, that Olympus never released an improved circuit board for it.

Mirror goes up, without lens, then shutter fires. With lens mounted, mirror goes up, shutter doesn't fire. Could be a defective lens that has jammed diaphragm coupling lever in the back, or if camera jams with ALL lenses, then body could have a broken spring in the mirror mechanism.

Cleaning the focus screen is extremely hard to do without scratching it. Viewing it with an eye loupe, blowing it off with compressed air and putting it back in is the best way to avoid damage. Rubbing with any liquids and tissue will scratch it. Dunking in distilled water and blowing it off may help too. As far as yellow tint goes, though, I have never noticed that.

Jerry Soloway who worked for UPI in the 70s / 80s used Olympus OM system exclusively. yes, it is / was a professional system. So the question is this: Did Olympus make a 'professional' 35mm SLR, that is analogous to the Nikon F and Canon F-1?

OM-1 thru OM-4Ti have similar mirror pads.

Could be corroded battery contact and wire, bad meter switch (internal), or open meter movement. I've seen a lot of these recently since I started repairing them again. Olympus 35RC by Henry Chavez, on Flickr Untitled by Henry Chavez, on Flickr

At this point, due to age, the nicad cells in that pack are probably dead and/or leaking. When I service a pack, I replace the nicads with NiMH. You will need the Olympus charger if you want to do things correctly imo.

EC is completely battery dependent and to do so you'll have to rig up some kind of battery adapter because the originals were mercury and had a propensity for leaking. I mean batteries were SO bad that at Olympus we'd open a brand new box of service dept. batteries and they would already be leaking in the box. That means probably the battery contacts in the camera have hidden corrosion damage, like they probably aren't even connected to the wires anymore. On the original EC button may go all the way down, shutter may make a "click" but you won't get any exposure. EC, EC2 and ECR were all dogs really. I stopped servicing them decades ago.

2S was produced in the early to mid 1980's. Production date is usually in the film chamber in small white letters. EX: SUF7. SU is the factory, F is the year 1986, 7 is the month July. All 2S have battery drain similar to the early OM-4. Olympus never updated the board to reduce the drain. For longest life use silver oxide 1.55V. That is 357, S76, MS76, KS76, G-13, SR44W, 303. No alkaline (A76, LR44), no lithium CR1/3N.

Slow speed governor is under the mirror box floor, lubing it with anything other than fine watch oil may cause additional problems.

OM-1/1N meter will move with no battery/switch off. Set to asa 100, B and f1.8, needle will be near the center (if all the meter strings are where they should be) but of course this should not be confused with a real meter reading. It only indicates that mechanically the meter is working. Electrically the coil could be open or there could be battery corrosion, etc. John, Camtech, www.zuiko.com

This is a common problem in OM-2S, 3, 3Ti, 4, 4T and 4Ti. I still see a lot of them for repair. John, www.zuiko.com

A little TLC goes a long way with those cameras. Good luck fining one that doesn't need work. Oldest bodies are over 40 years old. Every OM-1/1N I repair gets converted to the silver oxide 1.55v battery. Battery is easy to get (357, MS76, KS76, G-13, SR44W, S76, 303). Meter failure can be cause by a half dozen different things, but everything is fixable. John, Camtech, www.zuiko.com

Dark spots are likely a deteriorated pentaprism, and not the focus screen. They can appear as bubbles or full black patches. Foam pressed against the prism has rotted and eaten through the prism coating. Only fix is to replace the prism. John, www.zuiko.com

Mirror lock can be caused by a dozen different things. First being wrong batteries, dead batteries. A constant battery check LED is first step. Blinking means batteries are wrong or weak. Silver oxide 1.55v are the only correct ones. 357 , MS76, KS76, SR44-W, G-13, S76, 303. B or battery check/reset will reset the mirror. Sometimes the magnet is bad or "open" , usually from tampering, this rips the magnet winding. Bad circuit, or misaligned, mis adjusted timing levers. Dirty magnet can cause this, thought it would be erratic and not happen every time. John