I took my Olympus Stylus Epic on a daytrip to Cerrillos New Mexico recently.
The film was some old Fuji X-tra 400 which I had found at the bottom of my refrigerator. I think this is only the third time I have used the camera since I picked it up for three bucks at a local thrift store. The first roll had shown that the camera was leaking light through the top edge of the back. I stuffed some black yarn into the back, trying to stop up the leak, but that did not work. This time, I resorted to a couple strips of black electrician's tape and that got the job done.
In trying to figure out how to best deal with the light leak I googled "mju2 light leaks" and found that the problem was quite a common complaint. It appears the rubber seals on the back as well as that around the lens become dried out. I saw some suggestions that a rubber-restoring product available in car parts stores might correct the problem. I'm happy enough for now with the black tape fix.
If you want to acquire a Stylus Epic and are not lucky as I was to find one in a junk store, they can typically be had for $300 to $400 on ebay. I even saw one go for $700. It is a handy little camera, but paying those prices seems insane.
2 comments:
Electrical tape around the back is an easy and painless temporary repair. I borrowed a ratty Nikkormat for a trip to Costa Rica decades ago. I did not trust the back seal, but electrical tape eliminated any light leaks. In typical Nikkormat form, the exposures and frame spacing were perfect.
$300+ for an electronic plastic camera that will not be repairable???
Black tape may be my most used accessory.
I confess to being mystified by the prices for the Olympus mju cameras. I really have no idea what people are thinking who pay hundreds of dollars for such cameras. They were produced in great numbers, so rarity doesn't seem an explanation.
I thought maybe the fad would subside, but I see lately that the earlier mju and the later zoom models are also bringing big bucks. Olympus put good lenses on all their cameras, but a lot of them don't age well and the slowness of the extending power zoom lenses always seemed something of a joke to me.
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