In the heyday of Japan compact rangefinder, Olympus 35SP is the flagship model of Olympus rangefinder camera. It was even selected by as one of the 7 most classic Japan compact RFs - The Seven Swords of Japan RF.
Though I have no preference on these Seven Swords, I still managed to get an Olympus 35SP few years ago.I found it listed on an online auction with a pretty low price due to the malfuntion of light meter. Since it can operated fully manual without light meter, I took my bet on it and tried to fix the light meter afterward.
Luckily, the malfunction was not due to the defection but some circuit problem. The total price I paid for purchase and fixing even lower than the price to buy a good condition Olympus 35SP. What a fortune.
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| Olympus 35 SP x Kodak Max 400 |
Olympus 35SP is always commendable with its complete function. It is the first RF that included 3 exposure modes: fully manual, fully auto, and aperture priority in one camera. The fully auto mode is its highlighted feature. It means that what you need to do just focus and press the shutter release button after you turn the "A" mode on. I even tried to set it to hyper focus distance so that I can skip the focus step and use it like a point and shoot camera. Of course, this try has failed as I didn't considered that I can't controlled the depth of field under A mode.
For a photography new learner, who may confused by the combination of ISO, shutter speed and aperture value, a camera as cool as Olympus 35SP comes with Auto mode is really attractive. If you like to lay your hand on one of it, the things you have to confirm before you give your order are:
1. The light meter is working.
2. The light meter works accurately. It was designed to run with a 1.35v battery, which already been discontinued. You can replace with 1.5v battery and the difference should not affect the result when you are shooting negative film. You better not take the risk if you load a roll of slide film in your camera.
The second thing worth to mention is Olympus 35SP provides two kinds of metering mode:center weighted metering and spot metering. Spot metering can be activated by press the button on the camera back.
Olympus 35SP has a bright viewfinder. However, the figures showed inside are not the suggested aperture or shutter speed value but exposure value(EV). It means that you use it under manual mode, you have to see through the viewfinder for metering, put down to adjust your aperture and shutter speed to match the EV, than you raise it to your eyes again to take the photo. Such a cumbersome progress to slow down your mobility when you snap on the street.
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| Olympus 35SP x Kodak TriX 400 |
If you looking for its review online, the size is always been mentioned. I heard that it is the biggest one in the Seven Swords. That is the reason I call it Great Sword, thought this is just a comparative statement. It is the only Sword I own but I have touched the other three Swords: Olympus 35RC, Olympus 35RD，Minolta 7s II and all of them are smaller than Olympus 35SP. The good thing is, my very first RF is Canonet QL19 and its size and weight make Olympus 35SP good enough for me.
The fixed lens of Olympus 35SP is G.Zuiko 42mm f/1.7. As I mentioned before (here you go), the alphabet in front of the Zuiko means the numbers of glasses used in the lens. G is the 7th alphabet, so there are 7 glasses in this Zuiko lens. This lens was inherited from previous models 35LE, 35LC and also has been used on later models 35SPn, 35UC。 If you like to taste the power of G.Zuiko lens, both of them are other options.
With a G.Zuiko lens, maximum f/1.7, three exposure modes, and 2 metering modes, Olympus 35SP was totally went against the philosophy of Olympus : tiny but pretty. Even though, this didn't affect Olympus 35SP to be the great one among the Seven Swords, even the best one of Japan compact RF in that age.
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| Olympus 35SP x Kodak Ektar 100 |
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