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.
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.
ReplyDelete$300+ for an electronic plastic camera that will not be repairable???
Black tape may be my most used accessory.
ReplyDeleteI 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.