The Olympus Compacts in the 60's and 70's

The Olympus 35SP is a full feature range finder camera, it could be the best fixed lens range finder from Olympus. It has a very reliable Seiko-FLA between the lens shutter, the lens is a 42mm F1.7 with seven elements, the performace of this lens is excellent, provides very fine resolution and natural color/contrast rendering. It was also reported by some usres that this lens provides very good 3D look. The only complain is the large size and heavy weight (600g). The camera also feature spot metering and program shutter, it operates with a 1.35V mercury battery that can last for years. Inside the finder is a EV meter scale, you can set the shutter and aperture by matching the EV values with the indicator on the lens barrel. It also possess flashmatic auto flash feature like many other Olympus range finders. You just need to dial in the flash GN value then the aperture will be automatically adjusted with the focusing distance you set. Flashmatic is a very accurate flash control system provided your focus is reasonable accurate.

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The Olympus 35RC was designed as a lower cost compact range finder camera, it weigths only 410g and is very compact in size (of course not in today's standard). It is a very usable pocket camera with reliable mechanism. It has a behind the lens shutter, the lens is a 42mm F2.8 with five elements, it is very sharp, with low distortion and no noticable fall off. The only complain is the slowest shutter speed only up to 1/15s, sometimes you may want to shoot at slower speed with the sacrifice of some sharpness but sorry you can only use tripod and "B" setting. The camera has shutter speed setting on top, it operates with a 1.35V mercury battery. Inside the finder you can see both shutter and aperture setting, this nice feature can only be found on the 35RC and 35DC.

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The Olympus 35RD was designed as a delux compact range finder, it weigths 460g and is only slightly larger than the 35RC. It feature a Seiko between the lens shutter with speed from B, 1/2s to 1/500s. The 40mm F1.7 six elements lens is very sharp, with low distortion and no noticable fall off. The camera operates with a 1.35V mercury battery. Inside the finder you can see the aperture reading. You can either use shutter piority auto or manual control. The shutter speed is very accurate but unfortunately many 35RDs are suffer from oil shutter blade problem. A full cleaning (clean and replace all focus damping grease) is needed to prevent the problem from re-appear and it is not a simple job. The flash GN and ISO setting level is located at the bottom of the lens barrel, has to be careful to prevent them from accidentally moved when put into the camera bag.

The Olympus 35DC was designed as a delux full auto range finder, it is similar in size and weigth as the 35RD. It feature a Seiko between the lens shutter with speed from 1/15s to 1/500s. The 40mm F1.7 six elements lens is same as the one in 35RD. The camera is also operates with a 1.35V mercury battery, it works in program mode only. Inside the finder you can see both shutter and aperture reading at the bottom. It also provide flashmatic control and the film ISO setting is 25-800. A fine camera that you can just focus and shoot. I prefer it to the latest AF compact cameras, you never know where it is focused and the bright F1.7 lens is just a dream.