Archive for the ‘Olympus’ Category
Olympus 35-SP
There are quite alot of options available if you’re looking for a 70′s rangefinder. Some good, some bad, but most pretty interesting in their own particular way. There is one model however that stands out amongst many.. The brilliant Olympus 35-SP.
Built between 1969 and 1976, this compact rangefinder packs in an unrivaled set of features that puts to shame many of even the most modern rangefinders. It’s tack sharp 42mm f/1.7 G.Zuiko lens produces pictures with brilliant colour and contrast. The large bright viewfinder contains parallax error indicators and an accurate rangefinder patch. Then there’s the sophisticated metering system.
The Olympus 35-SP has the distinction of being the first ever 35mm rangefinder with dual metering options. Both centre weighted and spot metering is available to the user, which is quite amazing when you consider its age, and the compact size of the camera. After the SP a spot meter was included on the Leica M5 and CL but they were already beaten to the punch by Olympus, and quite simply just didn’t rival the 6 degree spot that came with the SP. Unlike many other rangefinders from that era, the light metering works in full manual mode also, which is quite useful when shooting in tricky conditions, or if you’re after a specific effect only manual control can produce.
Besides a revolutionary metering system (it truly was, and is still unrivaled to this day), the the Olympus came with a brilliant lens i mentioned briefly earlier on. The 7 element 42mm f/1.7 G.Zuiko is regarded as one of the finest rangefinder lenses ever produced. The Olympus RD (which came after the SP) has a similar lens, but without the 7th correcting element. Don’t let anybody try and tell you that they’re the same lens, because they’re in a completely different league. The lens focuses down to about 2.8ft and has a super smooth focusing action with a convenient lever on the side of the barrel.
All automatic and manual exposure options are contained on the barrel rings, aswell as a timer. After a while you can adjust these without taking your eye from the viewfinder, but it will take a little practice.
So with the SP you get a bright accurate viewfinder, unrivaled metering options, one of the best rangefinder lenses ever produced, all squeezed into a tough and compact body that manages to weigh less that comparable rangefinders of that era… What more do you want??
Oh yes, it comes in black too, and i got one, and its damn cool 
(picture taken with my homemade light box)
*EDIT: I just got a Silver one also, check out a picture of them together here
The Olympus μ[mju:]-II (Stylus Epic)
Ok, tell me this.
How many cameras can you think of that satisfy this criteria?
- compact
- rugged/all weather construction
- super sharp and contrasty fast lens
- spot metering
- auto focus
- auto film winding
- decent flash with various modes
Thought of any?? Ok, now tell me how many of those come in under $20?
Hmm, not too many now hey. Probably none. Except for the mighty Olympus Mju:II. (The only other camera that might come close is the Konica Big Mini, but they’re a bit more expensive, and i don’t have any experience with them yet)
Whats wonderful about this camera is its simplicity and quality. Its a proper point and shoot that manages to produce wonderful pictures that rival cameras many thousands for dollars more expensive. Don’t believe me? Well just go over to Flickr and check out some sample pictures.
Obviously a great camera doesn’t equal great pictures. But having something so small and inconspicuous will always give you an advantage over something big and obvious. Street photos, architecture, parts snaps, the camera can do it all.
Just for the record, this camera isn’t perfect. It has some quirks that can be annoying, such as how it resets settings when you shut it down (for example, it’ll reset the flash mode you selected earlier). Trying to focus through glass can also be annoying but sometimes fixed by focusing to infinity at the sky then re-composing the shot again. Also, selecting spot metering can be fiddly. But the good points far outweigh the bad points. And the truth is that this is an amazingly simple, cheap, and compact camera that takes amazing photos.
Some shots from my First Week with the Mju:II
Here’s a pretty old review.
And here’s a Flickr group for the Mju:II
(this wasnt taken with my homemade light box)
Some new Toys..
!!!
Finally, my Olympus 35-SP arrived in the mail! I’ve been loosing sleep over this camera the last week, worrying that it wasnt going to turn up or get damaged in the post. Now i can breathe a sigh of relief.. Its home, safe and sound
Also, by coincidence arrived another Olympus. It probably could be described as bit of an evolution from the mighty 35-SP, the humble little Mju-II (known as the Stylus Epic in other parts of the world). Auto everything with a reasonably fast prime lens. But i’ll give more info about both of thee cameras later on. Right now i’m going to play with them a bit!
Here’s a crappy picture of them below. Oh yeah, my SP is the rare black one too
Olympus Trip 35 Age Explanation
The humble little Olympus Trip 35 was built between 1968 and 1984. Thats such an impressive life span for a camera that remained mainly unchanged the whole time.
Want to find out how old yours is? The best way to discover the age of your Olympus Trip 35 isnt by looking at its top plate serial number, but by looking under the film pressure plate.
It’s a very simple process and with only a few steps to follow.
First of all you need to remove the pressure plate attached to the film door. Its the black square object in the centre of the film door you can see in the picture of it below.
To take it off you must slide the metal tabs off the plastic pins. You do this one side at a time by pushing the metal tab inwards using either your fingers or a screwdriver/knife. Once you do that, the pressure place can be fully removed.
Once you have the plate off you can now see the characters printed underneath, these will accurately tell you the age of your camera. The photo below shows that date stamping of one of my cameras that we’ll be using as an example :
As you can see, there are 3 characters. A Japanese character and two numbers.
This is how to read it :
1st character – The plant it was manufactured in
2nd character – The last digit of the year of assembly. (so “4″ = 1974, “9″ = 1979, “0″ = 1980, etc..)
3rd character – The month of assembly. (1 – 9 signifies January – September. Then X,Y,Z is for October – December)
Now the observant people would of noticed that if you had “82″ on the pressure plate it could either be Feb 1968 or Feb 1978. The way to find out what decade it belongs to is by looking at the shutter button. If its the chrome variety you have the earlier model, if its the black plastic variety you know you have the later model.
So based on all of this information my camera above was built in March 1973. My other cameras were built in ’74 and ’76. If you can find one from the 60′s it’s probably worth hanging onto. Wait a minute, who am i kidding? ALL Olympus Trips are worth hanging onto!!
Circular Quay
I love my little 1 cent Olympus Trip!
I just got some photos back today that i took over the weekend, and im quite happy with them. One thing im not happy about though is my scanning of them, its quite poor, so i’m thinking of investing in a dedicated scanner or atleast getting the lab to do it.
Anyway, these were taken in and around Circular Quay on an extremely sunny day. The glare was insane, and i was pretty worried about how the photos would come out. Luckily they came out pretty good in most cases (better than the digital scan shows also), but i’d like to go back on a day that has some better light for photography.
Anyway, here are some that i’ve scanned so far (still have half a roll to go).
