Olympus Trip 35 Questions

[cooltouch]

I just bought a guy's Olympus gear today, and this cute little Trip 35 was part of the haul:



I kinda like it because it's black.

I've heard that these are pretty decent shooters, but haven't paid much attention because I didn't own one, and honestly had no intentions of buying one. Funny how that works out, huh? So, anyway I'm looking at this thing and the big selenium cell around the lens, and I'm thinking that, for sure, the selenium cell has to be dead. And then I browsed through some threads here, saw the results some of the folks here were getting, and got to thinking hmm . . . maybe I oughta check a bit deeper on this thing.

So I googled it and read up a bit on it and discovered that the camera has two shutter speeds, 1/40 and 1/200 that it alternates between depending on the light values when the aperture is set to "A" or depending on aperture when the aperture is set to a manual setting (I think? Not totally sure on the last one). All this being controlled by the selenium meter of course. So I got to hoping it still worked. Played around with it some by pointing it at a lamp indoors, then decided to take it outside, and played around some with ISO and apertures and confirmed to my satisfaction that, yes, indeedee, the meter still works. Woot! As to how accurate it is, welllll . . . I guess I'll have to run a roll of film through it to find out the answer to that one.

Okay, now to the questions. I ran across this site that shows how to service the camera's aperture:

http://www.thermojetstove.com/Trip35/

He mentions (and shows) a meter needle, and goes on to state that the way the camera works is the point at which the needle is trapped is the way it determines how far to open the aperture. Well, I don't see a needle happening anywhere with my Trip 35, so this has me wondering if it is able to expose correctly at all since it isn't trapping the needle -- or doing so visibly, at least. So, my question is -- is it possible that I might have a later model of the Trip 35, namely one that no longer uses a visible meter needle? Or is mine stuck, and I might need to get it unstuck?

Also, the aperture ring has the A and then the aperture numbers and at the very end of the ring it says "for Flash." I can't seem to find a way to move the ring over to this "for Flash" setting. Or is "for Flash" meant to indicate that that is what the manual aperture settings should be used for? Methinks most likely the latter.

So. I'll admit that I bought this guy's Oly stash for likely resale, but I'm thinking I might just set this little cutie aside, and sell off the rest.

So what is "the rest" you might be wondering? Two clean OM-1MDs, a 50/1.8, a Zuiko 135/3.5, a Vivitar 24/2.8 (Tokina made), and a dead Vivitar 283 flash. Unfortunately, this guy's late uncle, whose stuff this was, engraved his Colorado DL # onto every piece except the Trip 35 and the 50/1.8.

[Minolfan]

Somewhere within the mechanism there has to be a needle or something like that to report the metered results to the aperture ofcourse. But in the viewfinder is no indication visible for the aperture applied. Unfortunatelyl

[cooltouch]

Yeah, I noticed there was no aperture readout in the VF, unless you move the ring off the "A" setting, then there's a little window on the bottom right that shows you which one was selected. But I was expecting there to be a needle visible at least. So you're telling me that the needle is just an internal mechanism and not visible in the VF, right?

[ludoo]

The needle is internal, there's a clever arrangement of gears that trap the needle to set the shutter speed. The trip35 is a very nice camera, if your selenium cell is still working keep the camera in the dark, it will keep it working for another few years.

A few pictures of its internals here

http://www.thermojetstove.com/Trip35/

BTW you might want to topen the top and clean the viewfinder, they are usually dirty and a good scrub makes quite a difference.

[martinsmith99]

Glad you like the camera.

They do sell well on Ebay, which is where the one I was given went.

[Minolfan]

[ludoo]

[cooltouch]

This Trip 35 came with its original lens cap, which fits rather loosely, and a nice little leather case, where apparently it's always been stored when not in use. So no doubt the habits of the previous owner have led to its selenium cell's longevity.

Actually the VF is quite clear, so at this point, I don't really see the need to open it up and clean things.

Very interesting -- I just did a search on "completed listings" for the Trip 35 on eBay, and there is definitely a premium paid for black ones -- 2 to 3 times as much. Woot! Not really planning on selling it at this point, but if I change my mind, it's nice to know I'll be able to make some money off of it.

Mostly what I want to do right now with it is just run a roll of film through it and make sure it's exposing properly.