The Olympus Trip 35 was designed to be the ideal camera to take on vacation. It was small, light, and rugged. It set aperture and shutter speed automatically and was easy to focus. Finally, its price tag was enticing to someone ready to step up from an Instamatic. Best of all, it had a great lens – a 40mm f/2.8 D.Zuiko, of four elements in three groups. A traveler could be assured of crisp photographs with what amounted to very little fuss in those days before auto-everything cameras.

Olympus Trip 35

Olympus introduced the Trip 35 in 1967. By 1984, the Trip 35’s around-the-lens selenium light meter looked pretty dated. But that selenium meter meant no battery, which vacationers enjoyed because all they had to carry was film. That’s still attractive today, especially given how many cameras from the era take batteries you can’t buy at the drug store. However, left uncovered, selenium degrades and eventually stops responding to light. If you’re thinking about buying a Trip 35, get one that has been stored in its case or with a lens cap on. You can use a Trip 35 with a dead meter, but the shutter fires only at 1/40 second and you must set the f stop yourself.

Olympus Trip 35

The Trip 35 has a two-speed shutter: 1/40 and 1/200 second. That limits the Trip 35’s versatility, but keeps with the camera’s mission of easy good results. Indeed, after you set the film speed (ISO 25-400) and enable automatic mode (twist the aperture ring to A), taking a picture is almost point-and-shoot simple. Almost, because you do have to focus. But the Trip 35 simplifies focusing by providing just four zones, which translate to 1, 1.5, and 3 meters, and infinity. A little window inside the viewfinder shows you both the aperture and focus settings, so you can fiddle with both while framing your shot.

This little camera really caught on. Olympus spit out a whopping 5½ million Trip 35s, making them easy to come by today.

Since it went out of production, the Trip 35 has developed almost a cult following. Flickr has several groups of devoted Trip 35 photographers. There’s even a fellow in the UK who sells Trip 35 accessories and cameras and often replaces the original black material around the camera’s middle with custom skins in many colors and materials.

If you like the Trip 35, then check out my reviews of the Canon A35F (here) and AF35ML (here), the Kodak VR35 K40 (here), the Konica C35 (here), and the Olympus Stylus (here). Nothing is quite like the Trip 35, but these cameras have similar missions. You can see every camera I’ve ever reviewed here.

My Trip 35’s date code says it was made in December, 1977. It has a chrome shutter button; that button on later Trips was black. A heavy, wet snow had fallen when I loaded my first roll into it — good old Fujicolor 200. This tree, which is actually a badly overgrown shrub, sagged under the snow’s weight.

After the snow

I thought I had framed images correctly on the test roll, but it turns out I was ignoring the viewfinder’s framing lines entirely. My images had far more in the frame than I intended. D’oh!

1967 Ford F250

The Trip 35’s shutter button freezes when the light meter says there’s not enough light. The manual says that’s your clue to use flash. I seldom need to do that, as I shoot the Trip 35 outside the vast majority of the time. I put another roll of Fujicolor 200 into it and shot along the Michigan Road. This Shell station near my home has since been razed and rebuilt as some other brand.

Shell

Farther up the Michigan Road, in tiny Kirklin, I found this old Oldsmobile parked in front of this building that’s seen happier days.

Downtown Kirklin

The Trip 35 was born to use consumer-grade color film. Here I shot some Agfa Vista 200, which is just rebranded Fujicolor 200.

Meijer

I prefer cameras with in-viewfinder focusing aids, such as you’d find on a rangefinder or an SLR. Without those aids, I forget to focus! But I found if I leave the Trip 35 at its landscape focus setting, the majority of the kinds of things I photograph are in focus. Just look at the jewel-like color that Zuiko lens delivers!

Arches

The Trip 35 is a good size for the hand. Its controls all feel solid though not luxurious, except for the winding thumbwheel, which feels cheap. But that’s the only chink in the Trip 35’s armor.

Famous for Steakburgers

I put a roll of Kodak ColorPlus into the Trip and took it around everywhere I went for a couple weeks. I shot whatever felt good, even while stopped at a stoplight.

Walker Theatre through the car window

When you want to shoot the Trip up close, you need to be good at guessing how far away three feet is. I managed it here.

Lilies

And here. The Trip is capable of yielding a little blurred background to make the close subject pop a little.

Morris Minor

To see more photos from this camera, check out my Olympus Trip 35 gallery.

The more I use the Olympus Trip 35, the more I love it. I especially like how I don’t need to buy an expensive battery to use it. But even more, I like how I get good results from it with little fuss. The Trip 35 is a keeper.

If you like old film cameras, check out all of my reviews here!
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Comments

16 responses to “Olympus Trip 35”

  1. Lone Primate Avatar
    Lone Primate

    What’s it like finding film for cameras like this these days and facilities to have it developed? I wouldn’t know, but I suspect both are becoming rarer. Hearing that even Kodachrome is largely a thing of the past was sobering, even for someone whose experience with cameras is largely digital…

    1. Jim Avatar

      You can get 35mm film everywhere, and even the drugstore still develops it. I buy 35mm film at Wal-Mart and have it developed at Snapfish.com. Easy peasy.

      The other film size that’s still fairly available is 120, and that’s because it’s the professional standard. It’s available at most photo/camera stores, and that’s also where you’re likely to find developing.

      Old cameras that take 620 film can still be used with a little effort, as 620 film is just 120 film on a skinnier spool. You can buy 120, re-roll it onto the 620 spool, and shoot away. Just make sure you get the 620 spool back after you have the film developed.

      There are a couple companies out there who adapt bulk film to other defunct sizes. You can buy their products on the Web. I imagine developing is trickier to come by. You’d need to find a shop that can handle developing film by hand.

  2. David Avatar

    Congrats on the empty swear jar!
    And keep shooting.
    I find your reply to Lone Primate to be helpful.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Thanks, David!

  3. nick Avatar
    nick

    Great camera!
    I’ve got one of those Trips in the glovecompartement of my car permanently.
    It’s always on, and never fails. If I somehow screw up a roll of film the dataloss will not exceed more than 36 frames which is why I switched back to film for almost all of my family picture-taking after having lost all travel dokumentation with my two boys twice, and I am completely reluctant to sheepishly follow the industries given path of buying more and more gear just to save two photographies worthwile keeping.

    Jim your writeups are so nice and giving. A pleasure to read.
    Thank you.
    Have you come across an Olympus 35 SP or RC yet? They also have great lenses on them.
    If you want to try one don’t be put off by their need of 1,35V mercury batteries: they don’t need them.
    I shot a testroll with a 1,5 battery and adjusted two stops lower ISO. The results were so good that I set off learning how to clean+seal old cameras, put in a schottky-diode to regulate voltage and be happy.

    Cheers,
    Nick

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I recently shot my Trip again and have a new post about it queued up to appear in the next couple weeks. So stay tuned!

      I do have an Oly 35 RC, which I reviewed here: http://blog.jimgrey.net/2014/12/01/olympus-35rc/

      I’ve not had trouble simply using 1.5V batteries directly in old cameras, without adjusting ISO or adding a voltage regulator. It helps a lot that I shoot films that tolerate exposure sins well.

      Thanks for saying such nice things about my blog! I’m glad you’re digging through the archives; they get so lonely.

      1. nick Avatar
        nick

        That Oly 35 RC review isn’t linked in your camera listing ( http://blog.jimgrey.net/about/cameras/), so I didn’t find it…

        Your archives are treasure vaults :=))

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Yeah, your comment made me go look and notice that the link wasn’t there. I fixed that this morning! :-)

  4. Joe shoots resurrected cameras Avatar

    Still my favorite compact mirrorless, great for street photography and as the name suggests, vacation trips. And a tack-sharp lens. You’ve shot a lot of color negative in it, when am I going to see you shoot some slide film in it? :)

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Ooo it feels like the gauntlet has been thrown! It makes me realize I’m not sure I trust the meter — it’s good enough for color negative film with all its exposure latitude but will it deliver the precise exposures slide film needs? I guess there’s no better way to find out than to try it.

      1. Joe shoots resurrected cameras Avatar

        Consider the gauntlet thrown down! Have you shot the new Ektachrome yet? Good excuse to get a few rolls…

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Haven’t tried the new Ektachrome! The old E100G was my go-to slide film until it went out of production so the new Ektachrome is a natural choice.

  5. Gerald Greenwood Avatar

    Boy, do I love this camera.

    That is all :)

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I enjoy mine more and more every time I shoot it!

  6. arhphotographic Avatar

    Hi,
    I stumbled across one of these but it had a problem . Was going to try out and then sell. What was I thinking of???
    I hope you don’t mind the link https://arhphotographic.wordpress.com/2019/06/23/a-trip-down-memory-lane/
    Andrew

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Links always welcome — share the interesting stuff all around!

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