Sunset on a Country Road - Trip 35

Taken with my 41 year old Olympus Trip 35 on Fuji Superia 400. Zone focus set to infinity (the little mountain setting).

Black and White Abstract from my Olympus Trip 35

The Olympus Trip 35's crazy sharp Zuiko 40mm f2.8 lens is spectacular when I get the zone focus right, which sadly I don't quite a bit of the time... but I'm getting better at guessing the distances! This is a prime example, it may not be great art, but it is SHARP all the way through, with no distortion, light falloff, or softness in the corners! Who can't love this camera?

Taken with Ilford XP2 Super 400ISO film.

How old is my Trip 35?

There are plenty of articles dealing with how to date your Olympus Trip 35, but some of them are a little hard for me to follow, especially when it is actually such an easy thing to do.

Step 1.) Remove the pressure plate inside the back door of your Trip 35, it's quite easy to slide out, just don't force it.

Step 2.) Look at the number printed here:

The first, Japanese, symbol is the factory code and is not so important. The 9 is for the year, and the 3 for the month. The earlier Trips have a chrome shutter button, and some time in the mid 70's the shutter button was changed to black. Mine has a chrome shutter button and so was manufactured in March 1969, which is confirmed by my low serial number. If it had a black button it would have been manufactured in 1979. They were only manufactured between 1967 and 1984, so there shouldn't be any problems placing the year of manufacture depending upon the colour of the shutter button. Easy, huh?

Step 3.) Put your pressure plate back into your Trip, carefully.

Step 4.) Put in some film and go shoot something!

PS: If you have a refurbished Olympus Trip 35 then this may not be completely accurate because the companies that do the restorations freely swop parts between cameras as spares are needed.

Olympus Trip 35 resource links

I have a added a list of web links to this page related to the Olympus Trip 35, if you know of more, please list them in the comments below and I will add them to the list as they arrive.

Join our Cult!

For those of you who have been following my blog at The Photophile, you will know that I purchased an Olympus Trip 35 and posted an article about it here: Olympus Trip 35 Cult, with photos here: Trip 35 Photos. Since then I realised that there is a great interest in this amazing little camera and decided that the Olympus Trip 35 Cult needed it's own blog!

So here it is! If you have any photos that you would like to feature on this blog, please email them to thephotophile@gmail.com, with some info about the photo, eg: film used, place taken, time of day, or anything you would want published together with the pic. Make sure you include a link to your own blog or website! You could also include a testimony of your experience with the Trip 35 and why you like it so much. Photos of your Trip 35 will also be published, maybe one from the front and one from the top to show the serial number.

Keep shooting that Olympus Trip 35 and keep having fun!

Lanthus

PS: Here's mine!