I wandered into an estate sale, keeping my eye out for old cameras, when I discovered this interesting old gem. I purchased it for $5.00, and looked it up on the interwebs to try to figure out how to use it. Online is where I learned about the Trip 35's cult following. I couldn't wait to see what the fuss was about.
The Olympus Trip 35 was produced from 1967 to 1984. It was made as the perfect little camera to take on a trip, hence the name. It was meant to be a sort of photographic travel notebook, and actually has similar dimensions to a Moleskine journal. In spite of it's simplicity, this is not in the least a "toy camera". It has a real glass (and very sharp) Olympus Zuiko 40mm f/2.8 that puts beautiful images on the film, and the body is made of metal. It's such a cult favorite that today it is easy to find sites that sell accessories for it such as custom leather or leatherette covers, new light seals, lens caps, etc. Check out http://www.tripman.co.uk/
The fascinating thing about the Trip 35 is it's sheer genius. This camera takes automatic exposures without needing batteries...ever. There isn't even a place to put a battery. This is how it does it:
There is a ring of selenium photocells surrounding the lens. The cells do two things. First they gather light for the meter. Second, they make just enough electrical charge to power a very simple elecromechanical exposure system.
There are just two shutter speeds, 1/200 and 1/40. You turn the aperture ring to "A" and the camera begins at 1/200 at f/22. The camera then stops up the aperture to give you the correct exposure. If there is not enough light wide open, the camera then changes shutter speed and tries the same process at 1/40. If there is still not enough light, a little red flag pops up in the viewfinder and the shutter won't trip.
There is a very simple night photography trick. The camera has a working aperture ring. This is for overriding the autoexposure system for flash photography. Let's say that your goal is to shoot nighttime cityscapes, or portraits by street lamp, or whatever. By moving the aperture ring to f/2.8, you are telling the camera that you are shooting with a flash, but the camera does not know that you don't have one, so it will trip the shutter when you ask it to. This works. I have a photo below to prove it.
The Trip 35 has a zone focusing system. The focusing ring has stops with four settings, from headshot to landscape, each setting is labeled with a little icon. This estimated focusing works really well. The viewfinder is nice and clear. Remember to keep your subject inside the frame lines and watch out for parallax when shooting close.
Olympus made it's reputation with clever smaller cameras, and the Trip 35 was ultimate expression of how Nikon and Canon's little brother has always been good at thinking outside the box. It feels sturdier than it looks with it's metal construction. It is easy to use, and just fits in one's hands well. It begs you to take it with you wherever you go. It excels at allowing you to just compose and shoot. These are 40 year old cameras though, and some of them are not in great shape. I was lucky; mine just needed new light seals, and light seal kits are easy to find online and use. My trip is really as good as new now.
Here is a pair of photos that I took with a roll of Ilford XP2.
A hazy morning in late summer.
A nighttime urban landscape using the f/2.8 trick
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