Olympus OM-2SP Low Light Metering Problem

<p>I have a well cared for OM-2SP that has problems metering at low light. In bright light it seems to meter fine, giving me excellent pictures during the day. In low light is where the problems begin. The meter registers as light coming in when there is no light coming in. If I put on the lens cap, when there is theoretically no light coming into the camera, it still registers at the same light level as a badly lit floor or a moonlight wall. If I change aperture and shutter speed, the meter registers a different amount of light, but it is still consistent for multiple different low light conditions. I've been using this camera reliably for the past year and only now has begun to give me problems. Any ideas or suggestions about how to fix this problem?</p>

<p>Is this on auto exposure, or just the metered needle exposure?<br>

For the metered needle it is reading the light coming through the prism, this means that if there is a lot of backlight and you aren't blocking the light getting in to the view finder with your eye, hand, eye cup, etc this will show as some amount of exposure. Shoot with the sun directly behind you with your eye up the view finder and then move back a little so some light can enter, you'll see the meter needle jump up.<br>

So reading some exposure with a lens cap on is normal, as it is reading the light entering the view finder, unless it is completely blocked (in which case you wouldn't be able to see the meter needle.<br>

Also if it behaves like the OM-1(n) then at really low exposure settings, such as 1/4s, the meter shows some reading even if there is no light entering the camera, or severly under exposed. At least with the OM-1(n) this is how the shutter speed dial interacts with the meter to show a reading. Anything below about 1/15s is semi-unreliable because of this and anything under 1/8s will not show an accurate reading at all.</p>

<p>Light coming through the eyepiece would have to be extremely bright as the 2S meters with a cell on the mirror box floor. If you had the camera up to your eye to see this odd reading, you would be blocking the backlight. OM-1 through 2N, which uses cds cells pointed at the focus screen to give meter readings are much more affected by light coming in through the eyepiece. This 2S problem could be much more serious. trying racking the asa knob back and forth to clean the asa circuit. I fear you have a more serious circuit problem which may have no fix. John</p>

<p>@ M. Newton. This is on manual needle exposure. This particular camera meters from the shutter instead of through the prism, so I doubt it has to do with light coming in from the eypiece. I've done tests of the camera in a totally dark room with the lens cap on and it still registers as some light coming into the camera. I've used this camera for night shooting and it has given me good shots, but that was a while ago and I did find this problem when I tried to shoot at night again. It seems like it meters a light source fine but it meters really dark objects incorrectly. It could have to do with unreliability at slow shutter speeds but I don't remember it ever giving me those issues.<br /><br />@ J. Hermanson. Changing the ASA setting had no change. When I finish this particular roll in the camera, I will make a decision on the busted circuit, but I hope that it still functions correctly. I'm assuming that it would be easier to just get a new camera than to attempt to diagnose the busted circuit? Any idea what could have caused the circuit to fail? It has not been against terrible conditions. The worst was an Ohio winter and slight amounts of condensation on the prism which I corrected with a hair dryer and rice to help dry it out.<br /><br /><br /></p>

<p>All 2S functions are built onto the one flex board with 3-4 epoxy encased ICs. Not serviceable in any way, you will have to buy a working camera with good circuit.</p>

<p>If the problem only arises when you use it in low light, just use it in daylight and get another camera (probably OM-2n, not sp) for low-light and night photography.</p>

<p>@ Ondrej. I may just end up doing that. </p>

<p>Thanks for all the help everybody!</p>