I’ve been considering which cameras I should keep and which I should sell on to reduce my overload. The Olympus Trip 35 (rather like the OM1n), is a classic for sure, but I have a Leica for goodness sake! Why would I use a Trip 35 when I have a Leica? I loaded a film in to answer that to my satisfaction.
The “trip” sold and sold well, apparently over 10 million of them. I’ve owned two before but never got satisfactory results from them. This one seems a “good one”. I suspect that the back focus may have drifted on the previous two, and probably just needed adjustment. At the moment they seem to sell for stupid prices. I often see them priced at over £150! The lens is indeed very good – it’s 40mm f2.8, has zone focus, it turns out that the 1, 2, 3, people and mountain position corresponds to 1, 2 and 3 meters and infinity. Easy!
I did a run to Poole hospital and had a couple hours the kill, so took my customary walk around the town. Last film I used in the trip was colour, you can see that here, so this time I thought I’d use an FP4.
I had a little stock solution of my batch of Ilford ID11 left, so as unusually for me, I only had this one roll to develop, I mixed it 1+2, giving me 300ml of solution – just enough to cover the one roll! The camera performed very well and I got good images. My distance guessing was a little off a couple of times but not much. The film performed just as I thought, and with the lesser dilution than the last try at 1+3.2 and a slower film I got finer grain.
It’s a great camera and easy to use, that makes it fun. It’s light, and despite the current pricing it’s still not an expensive camera to be out and about with. So as such it’s a different tool to the Leica and brings something different to the table. That said, if I am honest with myself, I don’t see myself using it much, in fact the last roll was 18 months ago, so I think it’s time to pass it on.
S.H.O.U.T. 