Critical Practice - A Significant Thing
A Significant Thing â Trip 35
The Olympus Trip 35 is a compact 35mm film camera that was based on the older Olympus Pen EES half frame camera.
The name of this camera is an obvious nod to its intended market, people traveling and families who wanted a simple and affordable way to capture memories on holiday.Â
It was âaffordableâ because it retailed for just $59.95 at launch or $530 adjusted for inflation which is roughly in line with an entry level DSLR or mirrorless camera today.
It was manufactured from 1967 to 1984 with over ten million units sold during that time, it came fitted with a built in non-detachable 40mm Zuiko lens that had a constant Ć/2.8 aperture.
The shooting style of the camera was either an automatic exposure system that had 2 shutter speeds, either 1/40s or 1/200s that would be chosen automatically based on lighting conditions and the iso setting chosen from 25 to 400 or a âmanualâ mode in which the aperture was set by the user with a constant set shutter speed of 1/40s.
The lens used a zone focusing system with 4 options and was fitted with a solar powered selenium light meter which negated the need for batteries for the camera to operate.
The camera overall is simple in its function which allowed it to be easily accessible to the masses and contributed to its lengthy production run and its good reputation throughout.
The design of this camera is well thought out, it is small and compact and was made from strong metal for the chassis and stiff plastic for the film door with a leatherette grip which is both stylish and functional.
The lens consisted of sharp glass elements (four elements in three groups).
The function dials are all on the lens housing which keeps the camera body from feeling cluttered and messy leaving just the rewind crank, shutter button, the hot shoe and a small shot counter up top.Â
There is a simple rangefinder style view finder on the back of the camera body that works well for its size, it has clear frame lines with parallax marking to help compose your image and it also has a smaller âjudas windowâ view in the bottom right corner which gives you a view of your chosen aperture and focus zone on the lens housing.
When using the automatic mode, the viewfinder has a small red flag that pops up when an image will be under exposed, this also locks the shutter.
My personal Trip 35 belonged to my great grandfather who used it as the family camera to capture memories as my mum and her siblings were growing up, my gran says that he used to develop the film himself up in their loft and he always had it with him and I think that is evident with the sings of use left behind on my camera such as a dent in the filter threads on the lens. The small amount of damage to the camera considering its age is also a testament to the quality of materials used back then as well as how much care my great grandad put into keeping the camera in good shape, he kept it in a leather shell case the whole time which took the brunt of the wear. He even left the original QC sticker from the factory on the body.
I like knowing that this camera specifically was used by him as it tells me that one of the camaras I use to capture moments in time was used to capture some of my mum as she was growing up as well.
It was once my great granddads prized possession and now itâs one of mine.
This is one camera Iâll keep forever, it's significant to me and to photography.
References:
Olympus Trip 35Â (2024)Â Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Trip_35.Â
Kent, M. (2023) The olympus trip 35 review: Everything you need to know - your photography buddy, Your Photography Buddy - Your Photography And Camera Helper! Available at: https://yourphotographybuddy.com/why-is-the-olympus-trip-35-so-popular-everything-you-need-to-know/ (Accessed: 12 September 2024).
Dmitri (2024) Olympus Trip 35 film Camera review, Analog.Cafe - A Film Photography Blog. Available at: https://www.analog.cafe/r/olympus-trip-35-film-camera-review-qwrq (Accessed: 12 September 2024).Â
