Good Things in Small Packages #2: Olympus Trip 35

Hi Everyone, as part of my search for a light weight camera to take on a Nepal trip, I bought an Olympus Trip 35 from a gent on eBay. Only $25 and it was a beauty. It is somewhat limited by having only two shutter speeds and no practical manual controls at all. But I tried it on a recent drive in Oklahoma and Texas on Route 66 (non-USA readers: this is the same Route 66 from the 1960s television show starring Martin Milner and George Maharis), and I was really happy with the results. The lens is 4-element, probably a Tessar type, but I have not seen a diagram of the configuration.

The body I bought has some haze in the finder, but in that there is no rangefinder mechanism, it really does not matter. My Kodak BW400CN negatives were uniformly exposed; the little selenium light meter mechanism seems to working perfectly. Here are some examples from Route 66. I think the lens from the other camera I tested, a Yashica Electro 35CC is marginally sharper, but it really does not matter. I bought a 43.5mm yellow filter, but for polarizers or other colors, I had to hold 49mm filters manually over the lens. If any of you have any 43.5mm filters you want to sell, please let me know. Thanks for reading.

Sweet! I picked one up at a market a few weeks back - seems to work perfectly, but I've not been able to get out and shoot with it, as the weather has been rather woeful (not to mention work getting in the way!)

Have a great trip - think you landed a real gem there!

Nice shots of Rt 66.
Living on the old road in NE Oklahom most of my life has maybe jaded me a little as to the photographic opportunities available.

I printed from mine. Very sharp lens. They still have original advertisements on YouTube for this camera with famous photographer.

I used it few times and prefer Smena-8M or Zorki, both are small as well, but allows me to think. I also don't like scale in people, I turn it upside down to see it in meters.

Only 400 ISO makes it refusing to take indoor shots too often. But it works great with flash.

It also bugs me to have cap always on to keep meter cell still alive. I prefer protective filter and no cap. Missed couple of shots with it after I forgot to return it to auto.

It has very solid build and rare size filter.

Been a fan of the Trip 35 for many a year, will post up some photos from it when I'm home this evening. Its failing, IMO (opinions differ of course) is the lack of a rangefinder. I've never really been confident to take close-ups with it because my guestimation of shorter distances is not good enough.

Lots of little touches went into its design however, many of which most users never considered. For example, in order to maximize depth of field and minimize focussing errors, the design of the mechanics will always favour 1/40th matched to as small an aperture as possible unless 1/40th @F/22 would result in over exposure, and only then will it switch to 1/200th. On examples made during or after 1969, the focussing notch indicated with a 'family' icon (3m) is highlighted in red, while the rest including infinity are yellow. Olympus wanted people to use this as the 'default' focussing position, because it is based around the hyperfocal focussing position of the camera's 42mm lens, in order to best exploit its DOF at the small apertures the camera is engineered to 'choose' when light permits.

Kodachromeguy said:

I bought a 43.5mm yellow filter, but for polarizers or other colors, I had to hold 49mm filters manually over the lens. If any of you have any 43.5mm filters you want to sell, please let me know.

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Indeed 43.5 filters are hard to come by. If you have a hand to spare, rather than using it to hold an oversize filter, use it to steady your camera or as a flexible lens shade. IMO you should buy a step-up ring 43.5mm-46mm, easily found on the auction site, e.g. there (many more available).

Couple of photos as promised

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IMO the Olympus Trip 35 was one of the best compact 35mm cameras. There is just so much that is good about them and most importantly the number of cameras that have stood the test of time and still work today.

I'm fond of my Trip 35:

43.5 to 49mm step up rings are readily available, as are 43.5 to 43mm step down rings.