Olympus Trip 35 - A Vintage Point and Shoot Camera (Review)
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- In today’s episode, Jules, Paul and I review the Olympus Trip 35 - a beautiful, compact 35mm viewfinder camera with built-in selenium light meter, an excellent 40mm f/2.8 Zuiko lens and an automatic exposure mode. The camera was first introduced in 1967 and built until 1984. According to most online sources, about 10 million units were produced in these 17 years, yet this number is likely to include later plastic versions with some form of Trip branding. Looking at the actual serial numbers, it is more likely that Olympus built around 5.4 million units of the Trip 35.
Paul is also known as Trip Man (www.tripman.co.uk), selling refurbished classic Trip 35 cameras and accessories online out of England. He is a true authority and thus my perfect guide to this wonderful little camera. I cautiously reached out to him asking whether he would be available for a conversation via Zoom and he decided to spend a short spring vacation here in Munich. We used the opportunity to take the Trip 35 out on a photo walk in Munich’s Westend district shooting Ilford Pan 400 on a cloudy day. Paul could use the Trip 35 here in Munich as it was originally intended - as a light, easy-to-use travel camera that lets you explore the world, focus on your subject and nothing else.
I also took the camera out together with Jules on a photo walk around dusk in a former industrial area. To match the beautiful golden light, we shot a roll of Kodak Gold 200 rated at ISO 160 and got some excellent results as well. Let’s get started and learn more about the Trip 35.
Chapters:
00:40-03:49 Introduction
03:50-04:29 Color Photos I
04:30-09:13 Historical Context
09:14-09:54 Black & White Photos I
09:55-19:45 Features & Design
19:46-20:52 Color Photos II
20:53-26:52 Lens, Accessories & Modifications
26:53-28:18 Black & White Photos II
28:19-33:02 Personal Impressions
33:03-33:42 Color Photos III
33:43-34:43 Outro
Gear used:
Olympus Trip 35 in black and silver
Olympus close-up lens
Olympus skylight filters
Gordy's leather wrist straps
Oberwerth LAHN wrist strap
Film used:
Ilford Pan 400
Kodak Gold 200
Sources mentioned:
www.tripman.co.uk
www.kpraslowicz.com
olympus-trip-35.blogspot.com
www.kenrockwell.com/olympus/t...
If you enjoy our videos and like to follow us on Instagram, find us here: / analog_insights
#olympus #olympustrip35 #vintagecameras #35mm #filmcamera #filmphotography
If you are about to buy an Olympus Trip 35 after watching this review, please note that Paul and we from Analog Insights have something special in the making. It might be worth holding off on making a purchase for a bit. :)
If you do buy one, make sure it has the original cap (if you want it to work).
I think I like the sound of this!
Interesting! Will you announce it here in the channel?
@Analogue Insights .... Well I have a pristine and very well looked after Trip in black and silver, but if there's a give away involving a black version I'll be very interested.
@@michaelh.gerloff3659 Yes, of course. :)
I have a 35RC passed to me from my dad, which I kind of see as being a higher end model in the 35 line compared to the Trip 35. I still want a Trip 35 though, as it seems like a super fun and simple to use camera. The selenium light meter is a bonus too, with no need to deal with short-lived zinc-air batteries or look for special battery adapters.
Love mine! Got a bargain on a mint one on a flea market. 10€. Didn’t know about it and just thought it looks nice. Than I shoot a film with it and was absolutely blown away! One of my favorites in my collection🤍
What a fantastic little camera, thank you guys for this beautiful short film about it.
I have 3 Trip 35s, one I bought for parts to fix my other two. I was able to fully disassemble, adjust them, CLA them and assemble them back together. I love how the mechanical speeds and aperture selection works - very simple design. Both are now metering within 1/3 of a stop difference from my Sony A7 III. :))
Always love watching your channel . Thank you 🙏
I have about a dozen working film cameras - rangefinders, SLRs, half frame, 35mm, medium format, even Leicas. But I always come back to the Trip. So enjoyable to use, and reliably makes good pictures.
A lot of good information and nice photos, absolutely great
All good. Some points can be emphasised:
1. The lens. Exceptional. The equal of any of my other lenses, including Leitz.
2. The way the mechanical design isn't afraid of 1/40th, and takes the aperture down to around f8 before it switches to 1/200th thus maxing out the benefits of smaller apertures.
3. Trapping the meter allows such a simple exposure lock facility. So useful, and it becomes intuitive to expose the foreground in brightly backlit scenes correctly.
4. So many happy images taken when the red flag pops up by rotating the flash ring to f2.8 and forcing an exposure. If there's a scene there, with some light, forcing an exposure like this, especially with 400asa film, often works out absolutely fine. And it's fun.
5. Accuracy of metering - just fine. I used to take a couple of shots just in case, but I just don't bother any more.
6. I have three, one colour, one B&W and a spare, so I don't mind how your excellent review is going to inflate prices!
It truly is an exceptional camera that, like Jules, I ignored for a long time. I finally cracked about 10 years ago and have never looked back.
what does trapping the meter mean?
@@kungfudildo3159 It means letting the meter register the light as normal - give it a second or two as it's not immediate (but it is quick enough) - then half press the shutter. This traps the metering and shutter mechanism relevant to the light you had coming in when you half-pressed it. Then you can move the camera, still holding the shutter down, and then press the shutter all the way down to take the photo. Example; you have a person facing you as your subject with a bright sky behind it. The meter will read the bright sky more than the backlit person's face, so if you just press the shutter all the way down you'll have a mid-tone sky and more or less a silhouetted person with no facial detail. Example solutions would include lowering the angle of your camera to face the ground thus taking the sky out of the frame, and trapping the meter as above. Or, maybe, turning round away from the bright sky, trapping the meter, turning back to your subject and pressing it all the way down to take the photo. Or, maybe shielding the sky with your hand, not to cover the lens but rather to mimic the skin tone of the subject, trap the meter there, take your hand away, and take the shot. Or go up to the actual subject, much too close but keeping the direct sky out of the meter reading, trap the meter, move back, press the shutter. These are all the same idea - you give your meter what you want it to read as a mid-tone.
I bought two Trip 35s from Paul a number of years ago. They were both flawless and captured some of my favorite images using slide film 👍🏽
Really great review. I always loved how these looked and was turned off by a panic that it used zone focusing and was automatic. It turns out that those features in that form factor are a virtuous circle. The image quality says it all! It is a cool way to make images without worrying!
One of my fav cameras, have 5 including an early model silver and rare black in mint condition + original case +lens hood. Great to see trip man. Nice review
As a Olympus man, I still use Olympus PEN, OM2 and digital OM. Also putting lenses from old analogs on digital via adapter.
AI, thank you all for a comprehensive research & thoughtful presentation on this wonderful Trip 35. I purchased two of these over 10 years ago for about $20 each. I just love the simplicity & design of this tiny Olympus 📷. They sat on the shelves for design inspiration. I think only 1 is in working order & the other one is frozen. I had no idea that a 50 year old 📷 is capable of such good images. I’m now inspired to have them serviced & start 📸 with them. Thank you for this beautiful video. ✌🏼& 📸
I took one of these on my trip across central Asia in 1992 and got wonderful results from it. Fantastic camera for landscapes, with a superb lens. Easy to pull out of your pocket for quick snaps.
Loved it and now have my own Trip to play with!
Another very professionally produced and interesting programme. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind feedback. Really appreciate it.
Greatly informative video! I love the simplicity of the Trip. I mostly shoot B & W film with it as I like the color exposures I get from my Minox GT better. It really is a fun camera to use for street photography and travel .
Oh no! Another great camera to desire! Thanks a great review!
I have not used my Trip35 in about 10 years. Since I acquired half frame cameras and Rollei35 if I want to shoot zone focused. I never had a bad shot or out of focus with trip35 and the exposure is always on point. Nice to see you guys and nice video as always.
Cheers
Maitani specified Olympus optical team to design a lens equal to the Leitz Elmar, with no limitation on budget. They did this, but then Leica released the M3, with a lever film advance. Maitani wanted to have a lever advance on the Trip
but couldn't afford to develop the 23 parts required, as all the project budget had been spent on developing the 40mm f2.8 Zuiko. That's why the Trip has a thumbwheel film advance.
I also have a Trip 35. Nowadays I don't use it as much anymore. I usually shoot 1 or 2 films with it each year mainly to see if it still works. Of course it always does. It's fun to use because it's so uncomplicated, it lets you concentrate on your subject. I took some of my favourite pictures with this camera.
Max, your videos are always so well done. Keep it up guys!
Thanks so much for your kind feedback. I really appreciate it.
I have to say that this review is something of a masterpiece in itself.
Thank you. That is very kind of you.
Brings back some memories. This was my first camera bought for my birthday 11th birthday gift. Helped spark my interest in photography, I took so many photos with this camera till it got stolen.
I very much enjoyed this video, very well done. You've inspired me to put a roll through my Trip35.
Thanks for your feedback. Glad to hear that. Enjoy shooting the Trip 35.
My father had this camera, so this was the first camera I ever held. I always liked the feel of it when I was a little kid
thank you, another wonderful episode
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the kind feedback.
bought mine more than 10 years ago second hand. It came without a lens cover and still have no issue with light metering. It always impressed me how good the camera performs and also the price of it has gone much higher since the time I bought it !
I have 5 of these, they are amazing.
Amazing images, as always, but even more amazing with this camera. I'll never understand how a camera with only 2 speeds can ever make a single well exposed shot. But it obviously can...
what a great review!!! Amazing work.
Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed it. :)
I concur with everything you said about the camera and yes, I own one. I love how compact and easy to use it is and the quality of the photos you get from it. And, now I've seen how good looking Paul's black one is, I want to get a black one too!!!. Mind you, the prices on eBay and Etsy are going up all the time. A popular camera, hence the prices being asked for them.
Great video :) I bought mine 2 year ago on fb market for 30€, it was my first film camera. It's fun to use and gives interesting results. The only difficulty I have is with zone focusing, sometimes I had blurry subjects. I find it difficult to choose between 1m and 1m50 (the first two pictograms). I wanted to have more control over the focus afterwards, which is why I opted for a pentax MX, also because it is compact and easy to carry. Your review made me decide to choose this one. Thank you for your videos and the passion you transmit!
The last Olympus Trip 35 ever produced was, as I understand it #5453231, in chrome. It was delivered to Australia. Its production date was 29/11/1985.
Tolles Teil. Gute Bilder! ❤️😎
Thank you for an excellent review as usual. Some years ago I purchased an Olympus Trip 35 for my then 'serious girlfriend's' 21st birthday. Now after 40 years my 'wife' (no longer the girlfriend) still has the camera, although it has spent most of its life in the back of a cupboard in my Darkroom where I store film paper, so it has not been exposed to any light as sadly we have lost the lens cap while the pouch fell to pieces, but the camera seems to work fine, although it will need some new light seals very soon. As our eldest Son lives outside Southampton (Fair Oak) I plan to send it to Paul to get a clean and overhaul so that she can use it once again.
Fair Oak is just down the road from me! I'll look forward to seeing the camera when it comes for the service :-)
You, Jules, and Paul do a fabulous job of discussing these old film cameras. I would love to see you do some of the classics from Canon such as the first-generation F1, the EF, and the FTb. I really enjoyed your video on the Canon P. Then there is the Nikon F2. All of these are film cameras from the 1970's and can be acquired relatively inexpensively on eBay.
so outstanding recording~felow, 👍
This is the first time I've enjoyed one of your excellent Olympus reviews and owned the camera in question already. Fun camera, but it doesn't get as much use since I got an OM-1, OM-2 and XA, I feel like I can do anything with those three. I tried the Pen S as well, but had to set it aside when I realised my lab charges double to scan half-frame rolls, so that will hopefully get a second chance when I get a camera scanning setup sometime this year.
Thanks again for all your great work, very inspiring but bad for my wallet!
Thank you for this excellent, and extensive review of the Trip 35! Mine even has its original box and lens cap. Tripman has a detailed list of accessories, filters, and modifications. I would appreciate if Tripman would offer DIY kits for re-leathering vintage Trip 35’s. Hint, Hint!
Great review! I have a Trip 35 and have recently started using film again and I have to dig it out and start using it again. What was also interesting is I’m local to Paul and will probably contact him regarding having the camera serviced.
Thank you this is very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I have just bought a 1979 version it’s been totally refurbished by the trip doctor in red leather can’t wait to shoot it
Love my Trip (purchased from Paul with red leather several years ago!), although I had never taken it on a trip until I went to Japan last fall (mainly because I usually take my Fuji high-end Fuji Klasse S instead). What a blast I had with it! And great images too. While the Klasse S is excellent, it’s not nearly as fun to use as the Trip, so I think it’s the Trip that will be joining me in Portugal in May.
One of my favorite cameras... basic as it gets with an outstanding lens...
Wonderful cameras , Olympus got these right first time and there was no need to mkII or change anything due to them basically being a full frame version of the EE half frame cameras , the trap needle mechanism for the exposure was simple and reasonably robust. When buying they generally only have one show stopping fault - the shutter being stuck , an easy fix as long as you pay attention to the focus position of the lens - great guides online about how to do it. The selenium meter cells are long lasting - technically they will never run out of power - what kills them is exposure to moisture or physical damage, They made so many that they are everywhere , if you do not want to pay a lot just be patient and one will turn up somewhere , The only thing that will catch you out when using one is focus - you will forget to use the zone focus often enough to really understand that auto focus was the true point and shoot innovation that could be described as a game changer.
The perfect eco film camera - solar powered 0 get one.
Bought a few examples over the years
Not so long ago I
Paid £ 40 for one from a camera dealer but the lens I discovered has some contamination...
I paid £ 25 for another from a charity shop just on impulse it is in perfect shape and works beautifully.
Recently seen example s in a camera shop selling at over one hundred pounds each so the prices are going up all the time.
I had S.K. Grimes make a step up ring for the filters on these since I tried several off the shelf step up rings, and frustratingly none of them worked or had the right thread pitch. Now I can use regular off the shelf 46mm filters. I have tons of custom step up rings from S.K. Grimes for my lenses with filter threads that you can't get off the shelf easily and I get them adapted for more common sizes like 40.5mm, 46mm, and 52mm
My wife had a Trip 35. It worked quite well. She got a lot of good pictures with it until something in the film winding mechanism jammed.
I had a Ricoh 35 ZF, which was really similar to this one. I lost it in Quebec city on a night photography. I came back to get it an hour after. Obviously, it wasn't there anymore. I could consider this model. I think my local repair shop has one.
I have had a TRIP 35 for forty years and I have gotten lots of good photos with it.
I use mine for jobs where I don't want to risk ruining an expensive DSLR camera.
Just found my Trip 35 back; well a friend gave it me quite some time ago. Not as heavy as my Mamiya Press Super23 with a 250mm ;-)
Sold mine a few months ago, found another one at a street market and paid €25. Looks in nice working conditions even being without the lens cap, I guess it has probably been stored in a drawer or in a closet. I've put new light seals, will probably keep this one
Fondly remember buying 100 of these at a time in the early 70s. Great camera.. Ohh dealer net was under 50$ canadian back then..
Wow, those were the days.
One have laid eyes on a black one like more than ten years ago and have never seen one in the wild since.
Really enjoyed the video the only thing I think that wasn’t covered is the popular misconception they by selecting the flash mode the camera will shoot at whichever aperture you set. If you set f2.8 and it’s too bright the camera will override your setting. Try it by setting the camera off A to f2.8 point at a bright light half depress the shutter button and see the camera has stopped down.
Alan
Bought onen a few years back, it had sticky aperture blades, I tried to fix it my self but ran into some issues so I never got to use the camera, regardless it felt like a quality camera, thanks for the review.
With the resurgence of film, apart from disposable film cameras it’s surprising that no one company apart from Leica is making brand new film cameras. Perhaps the potential market for a brand new camera is so small that it is not worth the effort or investment. I for one would love to buy a new film camera, entirely mechanical which would have less risk of being sent for repairs. I appreciate you and Jules making videos. Jules making pictures looks similar to a craftsman crafting something with skill and passion. Thank you Max.
Mint cameras are making Polaroid/Instax analog cameras with glass lenses.
I'm not sure if they make 35mm or 120 cameras, but their products are getting better, as they seem to listen to their customers.
Beautiful review. I just pressed the ”Buy now” button here, thanks to you, haha.
Btw, can you use it when it rains…? I know it is not waterproof officially, but I wonder how it would stand a bit of light rain?
The iso ring on my Trip 35 is very loose. Does someone have a solution for this?
Lovely made video guys!!
Good 📸🍡
Nice looking website at 24:37
Yes, it is so nice that we mentioned it not just in the video but also linked to it in the description. ;)
Now watch the prices go up!!
It already happened - quite often the same, when Analog Insights pushed a new video into their channel here. ;) But i love these professional produced videos, hence the channel since their early days, some 5 years ago. :-)
My father has one but has some fungus inside the lenses 😢 I don’t know what to do
Now you can already do live broadcasts with the Sony Xperia 1IV.
Can you recommend a flash for the trip 35?
I’m still quite new to this :)
The OLY trip 35 was a great camera but imho the half frame OLY pen F film camera is one of the all time greats. 72 images on a roll of 35mm 36 exposures. For travel non pro work it was simply unbeatable. It is kind of heartbreaking the Olympus does not make a 43 digital camera with aperture on lenses iso and shutter speed dials.
I am trying to find a all black version
How can you know/check if the solar meter is still good before you buy one?
I think the ten million figure refers to the total number of Olympus cameras sold thanks to the David Bailey advertising campaign.
Hey I do have an Olympus Trip 35 from my father and I notice the ASA dial is kind of lose (when you twist it you don't feel any kind of steps jumping from 1 ASA to another) is this normal?
which do you recomend to be the best point n shoot film camera??
Trip 35......end of!
the flash mod works in automatic mode? or just in the manual aperture?
The Werramatic might be a better 35mm handy camera!!
These videos are bad for me. They give me GAS. 😁
Always seems to over exposed black/white film.😮