CLA on an Olympus 35 SP

[marco_buonocore]

I recently picked up an Olympus 35 SP from a Goodwill auction. The

lens seemed to be in great condition, and the case and manual were

like new. More importantly, the camera felt great in my hands and

I've always wanted a nice little rangefinder.

 

I took it down to the local camera repair shop, which has a good

reputation in the city. I got a message from one of the technicians

at the shop, and he quoted me a fair price to get it up to speed.

What puzzled me was that he said that he couldn't '100% guarantee that

the spot metering would be in the center of the frame'

 

Does this make sense? I'm a big fan of spot metering, and use it

pretty regularly. I guess there weren't too many cameras from that

period with spot metering, but would this be a common problem when

repairing a 35 SP or any older spot meter?

 

If anyone's got experience with this sort of thing, I'd appreciate

your thoughts. I suppose I could live with it being off center, if

that's the case, but would like to avoid it if possible.

 

 

Thanks!

[mfophotos]

Umm I thought it used a typical photocell on the front of the lens. If he's telling you that, I

worry.

[cenelsonfoto]

Gandy's site shows unit with two modes for metering:

 

Produced from 1969 to about 1976, the Olympus 35 SP has the distinction of being the only 35 Rangefinder with a dual metering system: spot or centerweighted readings. This is amazing since the camera is over 30 years old and to date no other RF has equaled the 35 SP's dual metering. Yes indeed, it was far ahead of its time. If you don't count the Leica M5 and CL with their large spot meters, the 35 SP is also the only 35 rangefinder with spot metering! Besides that, the 35 SP was the 1st camera with AE exposure AND spot metering!

[cenelsonfoto]

<a href="http://www.cameraquest.com/olysp.htm">LINK: http://www.cameraquest.com/olysp.htm</a>

[mfophotos]

I was thinking of the 35RC, my bad! ;)

[david_m]

This camera does not have real spot metering in the true sense of the word. Its more like heavily centre-weighted. The Topcon Unirex had the same type of thing. The real problem with this camera is it needs a mercury battery which is no longer available. They are nice cameras though.

[marco_buonocore]

David,

 

Yeah, it's not a true spot (6 degree, I think?) - similar to my Mamiya 645 w/ Prism. It's certainly helpful though; I've never been a big fan of averaging.

 

I just can't understand how the sensitivity of it could be moved from the center of the finder to somewhere off-center. I would have thought that the selenium cell would have been rather fixed.

 

As for the battery, it'll be replaced with an alkaline and then re-calibrated. I was under the impression this was a pretty common procedure.

 

We'll see how it turns out, I suppose!

 

Thanks,

[bob_hartman2]

For users of classic rangefinder cameras (Olympus, Canon, Minolta) you can purchase an adapter to permit the correct voltage from readily available consumer batteries. Go to www.criscam.com for more information