Camera overexposing film

brooklyn35 · Feb 25, 2015

Hey all,

Over the holidays my father bequeathed to me his 1972 Olympus OM-1. Its been siting in his closet for the better part of two decades and despite this appeared to be in great shape.

I went out bought a bunch of film and put a roll of b&w 400 ISO in my camera. I know that 400 ISO can be had to work with but I figured that with a high aperture and fast shutter speeds would make it workable. No mater what I set the camera at the light meter was telling me it was over exposed. Next I tired 200 ISO and half way through that roll I wondered if the battery powering the light meter was dead so I replaced it. The light meter seemed a tad more responsive but no dice. When I developed the roll all but 2 photos were over exposed. So I tried 100 ISO same story. Yesterday I put a roll of 50 ISO in and went to take a photo in broad daylight at F16 with a shutter speed of 1000 and the camera still said overexposed. I happened to have my DSLR with me and the photos came out great at F11 and 160.

So what is going on? Since this is my first film camera I don't have enough knowledge to trouble shoot it. Since the film is overexposed it's not just a light meter issue. Also, it can't be a film issue since I've tried several different varieties of film. I've tried three different lenses and same issues on all of them. Could it be something I'm doing wrong?

480sparky · Feb 25, 2015

Silly question, but are you setting the ISO on the camera?

brooklyn35 · Feb 25, 2015

Not a silly question at all! And yes I am and I just triple checked it!

timor · Feb 26, 2015

Not sure what you call overexposed film. HOW LOOKS THE NEGATIVE ? According to your story you actually under exposed the film about 4 stops, so, how looks the neg. The best, stick a piece of this negative to the window glass and and make with your dslr picture of it (against the light) and show it to us.

480sparky · Feb 26, 2015

Good catch, timor. Never thought of it actually under-exposing. But the OP says the meter says it's overexposing. So if that's the case, the negs will be very dark.

timor · Feb 26, 2015

Doesn't matter, what says meter, after 20 years of shelf electronics might be crazy. What worries me is something else.

timor · Feb 26, 2015

480sparky said:
Good catch, timor. Never thought of it actually under-exposing. But the OP says the meter says it's overexposing. So if that's the case, the negs will be very dark.

If the camera was set to 1/1000 f16 you can't over exposed ISO 400, even on extremely bright, tropical beach.

Derrel · Feb 26, 2015

Maybe there's some very slight build-up on the internal metering contacts and such...the standard fix was always to turn the meter on and run the aperture and shutter controls though their full range of movements multiple,multiple times. Also, make SURE to clean the battery compartment contacts very thoroughly with a clean cloth, maybe even a tiny bit of alcohol on a cloth on the external battery door, being careful never to get any liquid inside the camera itself. ALSO, the batteries themselves: gotta make SURE they have absolutely no finger oils on them: I have "fixed" many defective light meters by cleaning the batteries themselves,and putting them back in without toughing the contact surface with my fingers. Not sure what the OM uses for batteries, but the small batteries camera meters use have so little contact area that immaculate contacts and immaculate battery surface area are both important.

gsgary · Feb 26, 2015

Take the battery out and use a handheld meter

cgw · Feb 26, 2015

The OM-1 took a long-departed PX625 mercury cell. If there's a dying alkaline "replacement" cell in place it's quite likely not giving anything close to accurate readings. Then there's the possibility the metering circuitry is smoked.

compur · Feb 26, 2015

Not too long ago I tested the meter on an OM-1 using a current alkaline battery "equivalent" to the mercury battery that the meter was made for and found that with the alkaline battery the meter was 4 stops off (don't recall if over or under) so my conclusion was not to use alkaline batteries in OM-1s. An MR-9 battery adapter + silver oxide S76 cell is one solution to that issue.

But, besides that I also second Derrel's comments above and would add that the meter on your OM-1 may simply be broken.

bribrius · Feb 26, 2015

compur said:
Not too long ago I tested the meter on an OM-1 using a current alkaline battery "equivalent" to the mercury battery that the meter was made for and found that with the alkaline battery the meter was 4 stops off (don't recall if over or under) so my conclusion was not to use alkaline batteries in OM-1s. An MR-9 battery adapter + silver oxide S76 cell is one solution to that issue.

But, besides that I also second Derrel's comments above and would add that the meter on your OM-1 may simply be broken.

i use wein cells for the 625's. Keeps it 1.35 volts. if using the 1.5 volts i lie to the camera and adjust the asa film speed accordingly. so if you are running under exposed with four hundred move your asa up. If you have anything that takes 675's i cam using hearing aid batteries for that. I have like 80 of them because you can get them for 10 bucks for 40 of them at costco, ebay, about anywhere. The aren't that great but for the price pretty much disposable anyway. One of my meter needles seems to "stick " occasionaly. Dust, dirt, too many years......... with that i kind of pay closer attention to it and make sure it is floating freely before i lock it down. Old cameras develop quirks. two cents. Probably not very helpful.

timor · Feb 26, 2015

This battery or that battery or no battery at all ( as long as it fires the shutter), doesn't matter. With settings of 1/1000 and f/16 you can't over expose even ISO 400 even in very bright conditions. My guess is camera reads always the max aperture and fires always with max aperture without regard to what is set to.