Olympus OM77AF

[Doug T.]

Hi all!

I got this in the mail yesterday, my latest e-bay purchase.





I bought it as a parts camera for $1.00 with 11 shipping (it's pretty heavy). The seller stated that the electronics were totally dead, and that the battery cover was corroded and broken, so I knew in advance what to expect.
When it arrived, I cleaned the terminals, put a new set of batteries in, and taped the cover down (the latch is broken), nothing. Not a peep.
I removed the holder, there are two interchangable models, and saw that the contacts needed cleaning. I cleaned them with an old ink eraser that I have, put it back together and there ya go! Another one for the collection

They had a lot of problems with the battery holders, and only made these for a couple of years, so replacement parts are kind of hard to come by. The electrical tape I used matches the camera so well that it's hard to spot.

Doug

[lloydy]

It looks like they used the same rubber for the grips as Minolta. Which is a shame as it looks so bad on an otherwise nice camera.

[Stephen]

The OM 707/77 AF was the last but one film SLR that Olympus designed, and they really lost the plot on the detachable grips, which if removed render the camera non-operable. Quite what the designers who took over the research and design dept., were thinking of is now shrouded in mystery! Non compatibility with the old OM series, odd focus system, they simply did not seem to care about Olympus's reputation, built on the OM-1.....and when is a full frame Digital OM-1 going to appear?.... it is rumoured they are at last prototyping one this year, but the stumbling block is another new series of lenses.

Stephen.