Olympus Trip 35

 Way back in the dark recesses of the 1970's, Olympus played an absolutely perfect marketing campaign when it unleashed legendary point and shoot camera upon the world, the Olympus Trip 35. Released in 1967 at a time when people had begun to afford luxuries after years of rebuilding the world economy post WW2, it was a simple to use camera that added a full frame 35mm option to the half frame Pen range of pocket cameras Olympus had sold during the 60's. 

Olympus, always the innovator decided that people needed a high quality, yet simple and effective, full frame 35mm film camera to capture special memories like family holidays and important events like weddings. This is where the marketing campaign won over the masses with renowned British portrait photographer, David Bailey.

You're at a wedding, located at a quintessential English church in the heart of the community. The wedding photographer is doing his job with a big old large format film camera whilst David Bailey nails shot after shot, quickly and effortlessly with an Olympus Trip 35. The Wedding Photographer, keen to talk shop, besmirches the compact camera whilst David Bailey talks of the key features of the camera. The wedding photographer's assistant tries to tell him the guy he's insulting is David Bailey. The punchline became one of the best known lines on television. "David Bailey, who's he?" 

It was a master stroke of advertising genius and spawned a series of adverts that entertained a generation. That ad campaign sold ten million Olympus cameras. TEN MILLION! It also ensured that David Bailey became a household name, forever associated with Olympus cameras and, well, if he could do it, so could you. I was a nipper when that ad campaign started appearing on telly and I always dreamt of owning an Olympus camera. I now have half a dozen or so....

The Olympus Trip had the tag line "So simple, anyone can use it!" and yes, it is very easy to use. You just set the focus distance based on the symbols on the side of the lens, set the aperture on A for automatic exposure, point it at your subject and press the shutter button. To advance the film you use a thumb wheel on the back of the camera. An array of selenium cells measure the light and decide the shutter speed and aperture for you. Those of you who want a little more control can set the aperture yourself, but the shutter speed is always automatic. 

True to their word, it really is so simple, anyone can use it. it's also small enough to fit in a pocket and has a 40mm lens that helps it become a great everyday camera. I have an Olympus 35RC with a similar lens that has occasionally been called a "Leica Killer". Would the Olympus Trip get anywhere near that kind of clarity? Would my ham fists make a pigs ear of using the worlds simplest camera? There's only one way to find out.

I had finished my roll of Kentmere 400 with Donkey on the first half of my walk and got stuck into using my Olympus Trip 35 on my way back home. With the bright thingy in the sky and fluffy clouds all around between the blue holes, it felt like a 1/250th F/11 kind of day. I set my aperture to F/11, my focal distance to landscapes and let my camera do the shutter speed. For shots in the woodland shade I set my aperture to f/5.6 and focal distance closer to the subject. All I had to do was release the shutter and wind the film on. Easy peasy! 

I was having fun, despite becoming increasingly fatigued after not having been for a long walk for a while. I was hunting for patterns on trees, gnarly branches and hoping to catch some shadows too. It seemed like I had only just started my walk back when I got to the Wash and my favourite tree there. I had to get its first pic of the year, it's the law! By the time I got to my other favourite tree at the pastures and said hello to the sheep, I was just about done and so was my film. I headed home for a well earned cup of tea.

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 shot with my Olympus Trip 35 in Bellini Euro HC 1+31, dilution B, for 5 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Studio. 

So, the moment of truth, how did my Olympus Trip 35 perform? Had I done a good job or did I manage to get it wrong? When I hung my film to dry I was rather pleased to see nice even exposures and was keen to process it further. I reversed my negatives with Affinity Studio and honestly didn't have to do much to them bar a few adjustments and remove some dust spots and scratches.

I am very happy with my first ever use of an Olympus Trip 35. I have a feeling it will excel with Kentmere 200 and Ilford FP4. I will also shoot a couple of rolls of ColorPlus with it as spring progresses and we head into Sakura season. A holiday snaps film in a fine happy snappers camera just has to be done. Here's a few photos from my roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 shot with my Olympus Trip 35. I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Vintage & Classic Camera co. 
Olympus Trip 35

Films I plan on loading into my Olympus Trip