Two bites of the cherry

[matty]

I went to our local auction house for their "household and collectables" sale and saw a worn bulging plastic bag described in the catalogue as a pair of cased binoculars, etc. At the bottom was an Olympus 35RD (jammed, unfortunately) and this:

Olympus OM1N with the 1.8 Zuiko 50mm. Everything looked to be in working order if a bit mucky. I couldn't check if the lens was fungussed but it seemed to be in reasonable condition. I couldn't make the sale day so I left a commission bid of £25, I didn't want to bid too high in case there were problems with it. Come the day of the sale I phoned up to find out that it had gone for the grand total of 28, one bid higher then mine. Ah well I thought it wasn't to be. However, on the spare of the moment I decided to pop into the carboot sale in Bangor the Saturday after(not my favourite venue as there is usually very little to interest me there.) Going down one of the aisles I saw one of the local dealers I know and on her stall was the OM1N. I had a good look over it again and asked how much, £30 I was told. I proceeded to go through my pockets and found the grand total of £27.43 to seal the deal (all the money I had in my pockets at the time.) So now I am the proud owner of a near mint OM1N, just need to fit new seals and it is ready to go.
Matty

[daveh]

The shelf space is filling up, Matty. You seem to be having a good spell on the purchase front.

[lloydy]

Good deal, and you'll love the OM.

[Stan]

I actually owned one of these years ago. I was shooting with Pentaxes, but couldn't resist because it was a great price. Later traded it to an artist friend who needed something newer than her Exacta VX! Both great cameras.

[matty]

Strangely enough Exacta cameras are one of the things on my wish list (that is the realistically achievable list, the Hasselblad isn't going to happen unless I win the lottery), I've seen a few but either too expensive for me or too broken. One day I will find one. Haven't got round to putting the seals in the Olympus yet. I really do need to have a seal day soon, there are about 5 or 6 Slrs sat on the self needing doing, a Nikon EM, Spotty F (at least I've managed to sort the stuck mirror on this), Pentax Super A and a couple of others that I can't remember off the top of my head. On second thoughts perhaps I need a day cataloging what I've got.

[Stan]

The OM was a great camera complete with a 50mm and 28mm lenses if I remember correctly. However, the Exacta was in beautiful cosmetic and working condition, came with a waist level and metering viewfinder, 90mm Steinheil lens all in a fitted leather case! The camera had been her father's and she just never was happy using it.