Growing up in the 1970’s I have to admit that I had the obligatory flares and platform shoes. It was also when a series of tv advertisements featuring David Bailey were made, highlighting the Olympus trip 35. A camera easy to use but with a high quality lens . However I had my sights on more sophisticated cameras, at the time, so I didn’t consider this simple point and shoot offering .
Fast forward 40+ years and this ‘simple’ camera seems to have achieved somewhat of a cult status , and a price to match. A recent visit to a charity shop uncovered this “toy camera” and a price of £6 seemed too good an opportunity to pass, given my renewed interest in film photography.
My new purchase seemed in remarkably good condition, with a working shutter and light meter. On closer inspection, however, the aperture blades seemed reluctant to open fully. A search on the internet revealed this to be a common problem …but fixable. Time to get the screwdrivers out.
The first thing was to remove the two screws securing the base plate.
The yellow and black wires needed to be gently moved from around the tripod mount so that the lens barrel could be freed.
Laying the camera on its back I moved the aperture ring so that the ‘A’ matches up with the distance scale set to infinity, the mountain symbol. This would prove useful when reassembling the camera later.
The next step was to loosen the three screws keeping the little ring around the lens in place.
With the ring removed the lens element could be unscrewed. I then put a mark on the lens housing with a little correction fluid at the 12 O’clock position so I could align it correctly when putting it back together.
The lens element simply unscrews, as below.
The three screws securing the lens barrel to the camera could now be removed.
The picture shows the lens barrel removed
The aperture blade mechanism was now accessible. Moving the mechanism a few times with my finger seemed to do the job, the aperture blades now moved much easier. So it was just a matter of putting everything back together. The only issue I experienced was getting the lens to sit properly, however it didn’t take long to get everything back in place.
Its a little frustrating when I buy cameras and they don’t function properly. However this project has made me appreciate how Olympus really had distilled everything that was needed to produce an easy to use camera into a compact but sophisticated package that anybody could use.
Now to test it out with film. To be continued…..
arhphotographic 