Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Upsides, downsides...

The Olympus OM-PC (OM-40 overseas) was a consumer-grade camera released by Olympus in the mid-'80s. I lusted after them at the time partly for their styling and partly for the fact that they were extremely reasonably priced for a relatively feature-laden SLR.

When I picked one up recently for $25, I enjoyed tossing the little camera in my camera bag and taking the odd photograph around town...

Until the mirror stuck up after a snapshot. I gave the camera a light tap to see if it would jiggle the mirror loose, but it wasn't 'til I removed the lens that the mirror (or rather its holder) returned to the lower position, spitting out the half-silvered mirror out the front of the camera and onto the office floor.

Bummer.

On the one hand, I could try to get the camera fixed, or, heck, since I'd only had it a couple weeks, maybe KEH would do something for me... On the other hand, it's a scuffed-up thirty-year old consumer-grade camera that cost the princely sum of $25* and is hardly worth the hassle to fix; it's not like we're talking about a Leica rangefinder here. I think I'll just put a body cap on it and shelve it in the attic.

*Adjusted back to 1985 dollars, that's hardly lunch money.