Searching for 'Hot Shoe 4' for OM-2N

Hi everyone,

 

I've recently been given my grandfather's OM-2N with various pieces

of equipment but the hot shoe for the flash is missing.

 

I have searched the net extensively for a new/second hand 'Hot Shoe

4' but have not found anything in the UK.

 

Does anyone have a Hot Shoe 4 that they would be willing to sell or

do you know of someone or some company that may be able to help?

 

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. (Contact me at

the email address below - take out the 'ANTISPAM' part)

 

Many Thanks,

George Downing

 

gdowning@ukonlineANTISPAM.co.uk

I have one ... sort of. The old OM shoes were junk. After several years the plastic has become brittle and crumbles. My shoe is equal parts metal, plastic and superglue. After repairing it three or four times I finally gave up. It won't maintain electrical continuity. Ditto the shoe for my OM-1. If you locate one be sure it works.

Lex is right, they were junk, but if you want to mount the flash on top of the camera or use TTL flash control you don't have much choice. They do come up on the big auction site fairly regularly but be warned that for such a shoddily made piece of plastic they can get quite expensive. You might be better off buying another OM-2n or an OM-1n with the shoe included and then resell the body. Make sure you get an "n" model, the earlier ones used different shoes.

 

Another option (if you don't need the TTL flash control) is to buy a flash bracket and use the PC socket instead.

I wonder if any enterprising soul has made (or can make) more robust versions of these hot-shoes? If they fit snuggly and didn't damage the camera then I'm sure more than a couple of OM-1/OM-2 users would be interested - and they can't be that hard to make if you have the right tools (which I don't)...

Yeh, I've thought of gutting one of my dysfunctional shoes to make an all metal homebrew. The critical part is the post that's inserted into the prism housing. The rest of the shoe can be cobbled together from other parts.

 

Pentax had an ugly solution for its earlier SLRs, a doodad that clamped onto the prism. But it seemed sturdily made.

You could also use a TTL-Autoconnector Type 4, which screws into an OM-2n and has a TTL cable socket for plugging in an off-camera flash. You'd need to also get a T-Series TTL cable and use a T-32 or T-20 with a T20 TTL Autoconnector.

 

I haven't had the horrible problems that Lex mentions with my OM's after 30 years, but I've seen many Shoe 1's that were cracked. The Shoe 4's that I've had seemed to hold up better....maybe I was lucky?

 

Skip

What is the shoe 4 going for these days? I have one in great condition that I probably wont use.

You can get OM2 spot program body, it has fixed metal shoe.<div></div>

George,

 

A good source of such items here in the US is www.keh.com but shipping to the UK may cost more than the hot shoe.

 

Just how badly do you need TTL flash? For most applications, plain vanilla "auto" flash seems to work just as well.

 

Rich

Firstly, Thanks for all the replies so far.

 

I only have a T-20 flash to go with the camera and (I believe) the only way to fix it on to the body of the camera is to have this particular flash shoe.

 

"How badly do I need it?" - I'd VERY much like to get hold of one but it obviously won't be the end of the world if I can't. That said I'm sure someone somewhere has one they'd be willing to sell. Just a case of hunting around.

There have been a number of shoe 4's up on ebay.co.uk over the past 2-3 weeks. I have been looking myself as I've just got a 1n and was not expecting to get the hotshoe with it. In the end it did however so I'm out the market for one for now.

 

There is currently 1 that I can find, #7598559587 with a ﾣ9.99 start price plus about ﾣ2 postage.

 

The search string I've used is "Olympus shoe 4" using this rather than hotshoe has proved much more effective.

The most recent completed auctions went for ﾣ7 at auction and ﾣ19 as a buy it now. I have seen one go for over ﾣ20.

These will all have at least micro cracks on them, if you're feeling rich you could try the US site where there are some being advertised at US$70-100, but they are supposedly new and boxed.

 

Hope this helps, I have no interest in the items mentioned.

 

Jon

Success at last!

 

Having phoned round dozens of different UK Olympus/old camera stockists I found one with some brand new (but old) accessory shoe 4's for sale. ﾣ25 and ﾣ1.50 postage - beats the $100+ that I've seen them being sold for online! The company was an Edinburgh based company called 'Cameratiks' if anyone else is looking for a similar item.

 

Thanks again for everyone's help.

George

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OLYMPUS-SHOE-4-AS-NEW-CONDITION_W0QQitemZ7598559587QQcategoryZ15221QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I think there have been several through ebay uk recently but things seem to come is spates there and it seems there is only one at the moment.

There are two sellers I have used, gggcam and tpolony, who deal in bits and pieces and I would trust. I think they trawl car boot sales etc, it might be worth asking them.

 

Re making one, would it be possible, with a bit of ingenuity??, to cast one in araldite etc? I have used araldite mixed with traces of glass fibre resin dye to repair old avo cases. Brown plastic parcel tape can be used as a mold lining and leaves a mirror smooth surface on the set araldite.

I recently bought two "hot shoe 4"'s on ebay. Cost me about $50 all up with postage (America

to Australia).

 

Problem is, I have an OM-1 MD and they don't seem to fit. My fault probably...

My camera says just above the viewfinder "shoe 4" which to my knowledge is what I bought.

What hotshoe goes with the OM-1 MD?