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Monday, October 21, 2019

Olympus Trip 35, A Look Back

Olympus Trip 35
Analog Diary: Film photography favorites, a look back at a set of images with a vintage Olympus Trip 35 (1967), a 35mm film camera known for its razor-sharp Zuiko 40mm f/2.8 lens, an automatic exposure mode, and a simple manual zone-focus system.
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The Olympus Trip 35, a 35mm compact camera manufactured by Olympus, was introduced in 1967 and stayed in production until 1984. Targeted at people who wanted a compact, functional camera for holidays or family snapshots.

Promotion of the camera was the subject of an advertising campaign featuring a popular British photographer, David Bailey.

The Olympus Trip 35 is fitted with a D.Zuiko 40mm F2.8 lens and does not need a battery to operate.

Olympus Trip 35
Olympus Trip 35

The camera is powered by a selenium light meter and comes with two shutter speeds, 1/40 and 1/200 seconds, and two exposure settings: 'A' for Program automatic and a manual aperture opening selection for shots at the lower 1/40 second, the setting for flash photography.

Olympus Trip 35

In Program automatic mode, the camera will choose a shutter speed of 1/40 or 1/200 seconds, matched to an aperture range from F2.8 to F16.

Olympus Trip 35

The film ISO setting is 25 to 400 for later models, which come with a black shutter release button, and 25 to 200 for earlier models, which have a chrome silver shutter release button.

Olympus Trip 35

Focusing is by a zone system with four distance icons set for portrait, shoulder shot, group, and landscape. The distance icon is visible through the viewfinder via a small sub-window located just below the image frame. Flash is used in manual mode with a preset aperture opening.

Olympus Trip 35

The mainstay of the camera is undoubtedly its four-element three-group Tessar lens, which is acknowledged as very impressive. The lens is capable of giving you sharp, high-quality images with good mid-tone contrast and natural colors.

Olympus Trip 35
Olympus Trip 35

Just as endearing is the use of the selenium photocell, which is even capable of getting a correct exposure under bright fluorescent light, without a flash.

Over its production run, more than 10 million units of the camera were produced and sold.


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