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Olympus 35ED


The little olympus in question 
I got this camera as a giveaway something like 7/8 years ago. It had a cloudy viewfinder, fungus on the lens and the camera would be erratic in terms of exposure. Upon arrival I decided that it was too problematic to deal with and it ended up residing in a box with broken cameras (for spare parts) for years.

Recently, a friend contacted me to tell me that he found an Olympus 35 ED and whether I was interested in it - thinking that I have nothing to lose, I decided to take apart my 35 ED and see if I can fix it - if that didn't work, well, I'll have another one soon.

Olympus produced many nice fixed lens rangefinders from the mid-1960s up until the end of the 1970s. I am not going to go into details as I'm not very knowledgeable about each of those models. What I do know is that the 35ED was a budget model, full auto, aiming to the amateurs who did not want to bother learning the basics of exposure.

The camera is equipped with a reliable Seiko shutter, offering stepless speeds between 4secs to 1/800th sec. Interestingly, aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/13. Film ASA between 25 to 800. Has parallax correction lines displayed on the viewfinder but no real correction as you focus, a warning light for low speeds and a 4 elements in 3 groups Tessar-type lens. Batteries are the oddball PX640 cell.

Cleaning the lens was straightforward 

As I said, the camera was in a sorry state after years of neglect. Interestingly, the lens was easy to take apart - cleaning it though was a different story. One element out of four, seems to have been affected by fungus a lot. I tried IPA, tried window cleaner, tried white vinegar, tried dedicated lens cleaner, tried to wash it with luke warm water and soap - nothing helped. Knowing that I have nothing to lose (another sample was on its way) I wiped it in a circular motion with toothpaste: believe it or not, the fungus marks are less visible and coatings seems unaffected. Interesting - do I suggest that you do that on your expensive lens ?.. no 🤔 

Removing the top and cleaning the viewfinder was an easy task. Reviewing the battery compartment revealed previous battery leak and tarnished contacts. I gave them a gentle rub with a bit of sanding paper and cleaned them with white vinegar. 

Lens performance is good

I placed the batteries on one section of the battery compartment and filled the other with tin foil. The camera sprung back to life.

The camera has a nice heft to it. It is not big but it is big enough to use it easily. Lens focusing throw is very short and the rangefinder patch is nicely visible in good lighting conditions. When it starts getting darker, the rangefinder patch becomes a bit difficult to see - I don't know if this is only on my sample or that's how it is in general.

The Olympus 35ED is a fun camera to use. Unlike the Vivitar 35ES that I own, the lens is much more predictable (the Vivitar becomes way too "dreamy" for my taste wide open) and nicely sharp - my personal experience is that this D.Zuiko (Tessar) is much sharper than the bona fide Carl Zeiss Tessar on any Yashica T-series compact I ever used. Flare control is so-and-so but definitely never becomes an issue. 

Just a quick scan from the test roll. 
Performance is very good even for a damaged lens.

Having no control over exposure is something that will drive many people away from this camera. My guess is that the exposure is geared towards middle apertures when possible to optimise lens performance. I have to say, reviewing the negatives left me feeling impressed; a tiny little lens, simple as it is in the case of the D.Zuiko, can actually perform this well. Top marks for Olympus.

Due to their very simple construction, the 35ED appears to be a reliable camera overall. Other than damaged battery compartments there are not a lot of things that can go wrong with them. The CdS cell is reliable and so is the Seiko shutter.

I am wondering if the camera has an exposure lock function - you know, half press the shutter button and recompose. Nothing written on the manual but all cameras of that vintage do that. I thought of it after I developed the film so I didn't have the chance to test this theory.


Conclusion 

Ok, obviously not a ground breaking camera but one that is fun to use. These are now being given away almost for free so why not try one? It is not on the same league as the 35DC reviewed on my blog (here) but it doesn't pretend to be and this one actually works well. Good fun, get yourself one and see what you think.

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