Olympus 35 EC 2 Problem ??

[Ronald Bishop]

While digging through one of my camera  drawers today I found a little Olympus EC 2 hiding, don't remember buying it?
   The problem is the film advance wheel won't turn. Who ever owned it before must have taken the batteries out and with absolutely no corrosion.
I was wondering, maybe the shutter was cock before the batteries were removed?
Also the film rewind button is still in.

 I looked at Butkus manuals and know the voltage, I think that I can 'jury rig' some batteries for it?

[Philip]

Ron, I just checked my own 35ED and it seems to be the same as your EC2.  However my EC (no "2") does cock, wind, and fire without batteries.  I wonder if the 35EC2 was a precursor to the ED.  On my ED, the shutter button goes down a little but does not engage when there are no batteries.  With the shutter not operable, the film winding lever won't turn.   With batteries, it's fine.  With luck that will unfreeze when you get batteries in it.

I'm in Canada so it may be different here. But I've had no big trouble getting #640 batteries from electronics shops.  The last time I bought some, they had to order them, but Varta makes a 640 battery and a pair of them works wonders in the Olympus 35 series (or at least the EC and ED cameras; some of the others in the series have other batteries).  Duracell *used to* make them, too (PX640AB), but the Duracell batteries I just used a minute ago to check my 35ED are in packages labelled "Best If Used Before 2004." So I don't know if the Duracell ones are still made.

Besides the 35ED, I have two EC's and an EC-R (the rangefinder model). That whole series is good.  

One of my EC's has a shutter speed capability of up to about thirty seconds -- and that's good exposure. I've used it for night-time shots. The other "only" goes to four seconds, still a not-bad feat for a little camera like that. Its E.Zuiko lens (E = five elements) is superb.  It's really one of the great little cameras of the 20th century!

Good luck with it.

[Julio1fer]

I have one of those - I believe that shutter is cocked when you press the release button. Maybe the rewind button in is blocking the release operation? Have you tried moving the sprocket wheels in the direction of film advance to release the rewind mode?