Sharp, Sharp, Sharp!

The Zuiko 40mm f2.8 lens on the Trip is just incredible! If Olympus would make a digital version of the Trip 35 today, complete with 40mm f2.8 lens, and with a full frame sensor they would make a killing! I would look at maybe buying one, price permitting. And why can't they? The lens covers standard 35mm film, so it's just the internals that would take some figuring out! Simple huh!? Man, I should work for Olympus...

What the Olympus Trip 35 was really intended for!

I like to think of the Olympus Trip 35 as the VW Beetle of the camera world, it really was intended to be the "every man's" camera. And it was a great success of course, I mean wow, 10 000 000 sold! That must be some kind of a record, even by today's standards! The target user was your average family person who needed a cheap reliable camera to record the everyday life of his or her kids, grand-kids husband, wife, granny, etc. In that spirit I recently took my beauty of a Trip on an outing with my grand-kids and just snapped a few memories:

I am happy to report that it performed as intended, just like the VW Beetle it was easy and reliable! Just like the Beetle it became a legend because everybody loved them and bought them by their millions. Heck, they even both came with heaps of preloaded character! If the VW Beetle was voted the car of the century ten years ago, then why can't the Trip 35 be declared the camera of the decade for the 1900's? It's got my vote!

Alans Trip

I was sent this pic by someone called Alan, you can see more of his work here: http://pix.ie/alan Thanks for the contribution Alan!

Alan said: Hi Photophile, about the Olympus Trip 35, I humbly submit this recent picture of mine. (I confess I did not take it with a Trip).  Yours faithfully, ~ALAN

Upmarket Dwelling

Taken on Ilford XP2 Super 400 C41 process B&W film. Scanned on a CanoScan 5600F. Edited with the GIMP.

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.