Camera overexposing film

[480sparky]

Its been siting in his closet for the better part of two decades

Shutters get sticky from non-use. Try checking the shutter speeds.

That is something most people can do........ up to 1/15 or maybe 1/30th. Faster than that, and one needs specialized gear.

 

[timor]

Take the battery out and use a handheld meter

Or just use the Sunny 16 rule.

Perhaps you know of a friend with a DSLR. Get together and see if the meters between your film and their DSLR concur.

He just said they don't. Dslr was showing 1/160 f/11 for good exposure, OM1 was at 1/1000 f/16 and still meter shows over exposure.

 

[timor]

Its been siting in his closet for the better part of two decades

Shutters get sticky from non-use. Try checking the shutter speeds.

Sticky shutters don't cause meter misreadings. Camera doesn't know it will be slower due to non-use. Meter is getting wrong information and camera is letting too much light inside. I just wonder, how looks this over exposed negative, but I think we will never know, I think OP was spooked.

 

[gsgary]

It's making up for being shut in the cupboard fot 20 years and soaking up as much light as possible

 

[480sparky]

I've heard that CdS and selenium cells can degrade over time. If that's the case, it may not be worth fixing.

 

[vintagesnaps]

On a bright sunny day I'd expect a needle on a meter to be 'lively', it should react and move immediately when exposed to bright sunlight. You could try that, not necessarily with film in the camera, to see what it's doing.

I have cameras older than that and the meter is still working but have some that have nonworking meters; with this camera you might need to use a handheld meter (or if you have another camera with you I've used that to meter in a pinch).

 

[gsgary]

This is why all my film cameras but 1 don't have meters so I don't get stuck looking for batteries

 

[bribrius]

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.

this just made me have a thought. I wonder if it isn't the camera at all but the lens... ap ring. Maybe he doesnt have it set on ae. on the lens. Dont know much about this camera or setup just throwing it out there. Maybe he has it in me and is reading it wrong..

 

[480sparky]

Silly me:

Does it still say you're overexposed with the lens cap on?

 

[brooklyn35]

Hey all,

Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have posted I've been an amateur photographer for awhile now. So please believe me when I say the photos are overexposed. I'll post a few negatives and photos tomorrow but the negatives are pretty light.

Timor I assure, with my camera at least, it's very possible to overexpose at those settings.

Derrel, I'll double check the battery when I get home. I didn't really put any attention when I put the battery in. I did check for corrosion when I took the old out and was relived to see there was none. I'll try cycling through all the settings when I finish the current roll of film.

Compur I'm looking into getting the battery adapter however until I know the camera actually isn't totally FUBAR I'm trying to put as little money into it as possible.

Bribrius I currently have an alkine 1.35v in there which should be comerable to a Wein. Your post was helpful thank you very much! Please forgive my ignorance but what is an ap ring? The camera is completely manual with no ae or af.

Designer the shutter seems to move freely and normally.

480 sparky, I've checked it against my own DSLR several times and my friend's early 90s film SLR. Both say that something is wrong with my 35.

I'll try to post a few shots of the negatives when I get home later tonight. In the mean time here are some shots from the 200 roll. I regret to say the 400 roll was lost by Duane Reade or Fuji film depending on what you choose to believe. I haven't gotten the chance to drop off the 100 yet.

Thanks again for the replies! I'll put up the negatives as soon as I can. Don't worry you all haven't spooked me quite yet!

 

[Designer]

#1 very blurry. What was the shutter speed?

#2 pretty good, although sideways.

 

[brooklyn35]

#1 very blurry. What was the shutter speed?

#2 pretty good, although sideways.

I know that photo my friend accidentally elbowed me when I was taking it so I jumped abit. The second one really looks washed out to me. It was a somewhat dark day.

 

[Designer]

If these are prints done by the film processing company, they may have adjusted the exposure (it's done in the printing machine) to give you a better photograph. If they got the sky "wrong" it still looks good to me, particularly in the area of the dark window frames, etc.

 

[timor]

I'll post a few negatives and photos tomorrow but the negatives are pretty light.

Timor I assure, with my camera at least, it's very possible to overexpose at those settings.

"but what is an ap ring? The camera is completely manual with no ae or af."

.

AP ring is a Bribrius slang for "aperture ring".
If the negatives are "pretty light" it indicates under exposure, over exposure makes negs dark. OK, I think the meter is toasted. If you develop own b&w shoot one roll with setting taken from your dslr, develop for normal contrast and let see.
Pictures you post by now are showing only small over exposure, but then I would not trust too much labs developing colour film nowadays.
Keep shooting dry in very bright conditions, maybe the current will revive dried up condensers, Olympus after all was using good stuff, supposedly.

 

[bribrius]

I'll post a few negatives and photos tomorrow but the negatives are pretty light.

Timor I assure, with my camera at least, it's very possible to overexpose at those settings.

"but what is an ap ring? The camera is completely manual with no ae or af."

.

AP ring is a Bribrius slang for "aperture ring".
If the negatives are "pretty light" it indicates under exposure, over exposure makes negs dark. OK, I think the meter is toasted. If you develop own b&w shoot one roll with setting taken from your dslr, develop for normal contrast and let see.
Pictures you post by now are showing only small over exposure, but then I would not trust too much labs developing colour film nowadays.
Keep shooting dry in very bright conditions, maybe the current will revive dried up condensers, Olympus after all was using good stuff, supposedly.

well i was going to say something else too. rtfm. It may not help here though. i know i punched up one of my old camera manuals online the other day because i didn't know how to do the battery check. I didn't want to insult the o.p though and this is could be something other than user error. still wonder if there is a difference if he swaps lenses too. Don't know about anyone else but if the battery was in order and the needle floated fine i think my next step would be doubting the lens and toss another one on there just to make sure i wasn't missing something. i would also be looking at the difference between manual mode and shutter pri or whatever this is and make sure i am in the right one looking at the needle the right way.