Olympus OM-1 shutter / film advance problem.

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Nige
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I've not used my OM-1 for a while and found it still had a part shot roll of film in it the other day.

However, I've noticed that when taking shots the mirror will stay up until I advance the film, dropping down again afterwards. I then need to wind the film a second time before the shutter will fire again. It doesn't seem to happen every time, but more often than not.

Any ideas as to the cause (and a fix) please?

Ta.
 
I've not used my OM-1 for a while and found it still had a part shot roll of film in it the other day.

However, I've noticed that when taking shots the mirror will stay up until I advance the film, dropping down again afterwards. I then need to wind the film a second time before the shutter will fire again. It doesn't seem to happen every time, but more often than not.

Any ideas as to the cause (and a fix) please?

Ta.

Well I don't have the direct answer, but if the OM was mine I would take the bottom plate off and just put a tiny drop of oil on moving parts.
 
I have an OM1 which I use occasionally. One feature which I've never used is that it does have a mirror-lock-up knob just below the pentaprism. I think I would try exercising that a few times first to see if that makes any difference.

I took the bottom off my camera to see if any of the visible parts move when I turn the knob, and they don't. I would therefore be very wary of putting oil on the parts. If you do, please use very small amounts of something like Windle's clock oil or sewing machine oil. What ever you do, don't use anything like WD40 which is only of any use for rusty garden gate hinges or keeping moisture away from your distributor cap.
 
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Oddly enough, after removing the film (god knows how many frames I’ll get - it seemed to double-wind after most of them to reset the shutter!) it now seems to fire ok. I tried it at every shutter speed a number of times and the problem didn’t occur a single time. I think I’ll load a test film and try it again to see if it’s the film transport or something that’s causing it before I load it with any unexposed film.
 
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