Absolute Newbie

[raelenem]

I recently discovered my Great Grandmothers camera hidden in my closet. She used it for years while she travelled, and I'm very interested in learning how to use it.

The camera's an Olympus, and came with what I believe is a Macro Lense (it says 70 - 210 mm on it), a 50 mm lense is on it, and a "Vivitar Auto Thyristor 225".

I've figured out some of the easier buttons and knobbies on it, I think.

I'm pretty much looking for someone to explain to me the basics of what I'm doing when I'm turning certain things, especially 3/4 of the "things that turn"... the fourth is focus, but I'd still like to understand the numbers.

Thanks to anyone willing to be patient enough with my absolute lack of knowledge about this and reply

 

[xfloggingkylex]

I recently discovered my Great Grandmothers camera hidden in my closet. She used it for years while she travelled, and I'm very interested in learning how to use it.

The camera's an Olympus, and came with what I believe is a Macro Lense (it says 70 - 210 mm on it), a 50 mm lense is on it, and a "Vivitar Auto Thyristor 225".

I've figured out some of the easier buttons and knobbies on it, I think.

I'm pretty much looking for someone to explain to me the basics of what I'm doing when I'm turning certain things, especially 3/4 of the "things that turn"... the fourth is focus, but I'd still like to understand the numbers.

Thanks to anyone willing to be patient enough with my absolute lack of knowledge about this and reply

Im not familiar with the camera but you should basically have 2 things that turn, not including the focus and the zoom (if you have a turn zoom).

one of the knobs should be the shutter speed. This changes how long the shutter is open and should be numbered by 1000, 500, 250, 125 and so on in halves. the other thing is probablyon the lens, and its the aperture, where the smaller the number, the large the opening in the lens and the mroe light is let in. This results in quicker shutter speeds being able to be used.

The camera should have a light meter that changes as you look at different objects (lights vs ground) and that will tell you if it is properly exposed or not.

Others will more knowledge of your camera will give more info.

 

[enne]

How old is it? I mean is it an automatic rewind, or crank? those are fun. haha

 

[Torus34]

Search this site for the appropriate manual:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/

 

[raelenem]

It has a crank. I'll probably be back asking questions to make sure I don't mess anything up when I finish this film.

As for the site with all the manuals, the only lettering the camera has on it is Olympus omG, and that manual's not showing up on the search engine.

I guess my question then, is whether or not putting the camera on "auto" would mean I shouldn't have to mess around with any of those settings other than focus, or if I should still be keeping them at a certain "default" level. Also, what would the basic guidlines be for using them when the camera's on manual.

As for the little numbers that sometimes appear on the inside of the camera, I'm guessing that's the light meter. How will that assure me the exposure's in the right spot?

Thanks for the help everybody

 

[Torus34]

A quick run around the 'net indicates that the omG is similar to the OM-20. It also notes [I don't know whether this is true or not] that the camera needs batteries to operate.

 

[Garbz]

I'm sure it does. A powersource helps when using an electric light metre.