My Journey Into Photography: Olympus 35RC - A Small Camera With Big Performance

I really enjoy mixing my photography walks with film and digital images and of late I have been almost exclusively using my Nikon kit. I decided to change that this week and take out my little pocket powerhouse, the Olympus 35RC. Using my Nikon F801 and my Nikon DSLR is convenient and gives me plenty of options, but sometimes I just like to keep things simple and use either one camera and one lens or, on this occasion, one compact camera. The Olympus 35RC is the perfect walkabout camera for a lot of valid reasons. In a previous post I spoke of going back to basics and enjoying a session with my Pentax SP500 and Helios 44m-4, the camera I returned to photography with in 2017. This week I was wondering how basic I could go and, as I hadn't used it for a while, my Olympus 35RC was loaded with a roll of Bergger 400.

The Olympus 35RC is a very small camera, weighing in at 410 grams and small enough to fit into your coat pocket, it fits in the palm of my hand. It's also a rangefinder. This system is where the camera utilises two viewfinders on the font of the camera set a couple centimeters apart. The image from the two are combined with the use of mirrors in the main veiwfinder. You then match the 2 on your chosen composition to give you your focus point. It sounds simple but takes a little getting used to. There is a more in depth explanation on wikipedia at Rangefinder Camera

I chose to use my 35RC in it's automatic mode. You choose the shutter speed and the camera will automatically select the correct aperture for your composition. If the aperture cannot match your shutter speed, the camera will not release the shutter. This is controlled by a simple light meter that runs off a battery. That doesn't mean the camera needs a battery to operate, you can use it manually by selecting aperture and shutter speed yourself.

It's an elegant and simple camera to use but the piéce de résistance is it has a great lens on it. Olympus are noted for their excellent optics and they did not hold back when they designed the E.Zuiko 42mm f/2.8 for this camera. It may be a small lens, but it's design of 5 optical elements in 4 groups ensures you will enjoy the sharp images you create with this camera. I call it a powerhouse for that one reason alone, you wont get much more bang for your buck in any other camera and certainly not in this category.

If you want to see for yourself what a great compact camera the Olympus 35RC is, you can usually buy a fully working item ebay for a reasonable price. Even one with a couple of faults can be bought and repaired for not a lot of cash. It's more versatile than its sibling the Olympus Trip and is only beaten by the 35SP that has a better lens and a bigger price tag. For a camera that was first released for sale in 1970, the Olympus 35RC is probably more relevant than ever before with the resurgence of Film Photography. Olympus knew how to make small, light and convenient camera's that still hold up against their competition to this day.

The only bad point was the 1.35 volt mecury battery the camera originally used. However that ecological nightmare has been disposed of and you can buy the correct size and voltage zinc air battery. You can also buy an adaptor that reduces the voltage on easily available 1.5 volt button cell batteries to 1.35 volts, thus giving you many more years of fun with this camera.

I certainly learned a lot about how to use a rangefinder and the quality of the Olympus 35RC. It's a camera that punches way above it's weight and is small enough to carry all day, every day. My Olympus 35RC is a little rough around the edges. I'm not the first owner, it has probably had several over the years and it wears its scars with honour Here are some images I have shot with my Olympus 35RC, I hope you enjoy them.