Olympus 35 SP

Olympus 35SP

Olympus 35SP

The Olympus 35SP was the last prosumer grade rangefinder from the brand. It's a true rangefinder with a very decent telemeter and a sharp and bright viewfinder. There are framing lines and a scale showing the light level in EV numbers, from EV3 to EV16.

It's a very interesting camera with fully automatic exposure mode with center-weighted and spot metering. It can be also used in manual mode but you'll need to read the EV value on the viewfinder scale and set the shutter and aperture values in the proper way. This means that the light meter is uncoupled when the camera is set to manual mode. To be honest, the spot meter is kind of meh, due to the parallax.

The lens is a razor-sharp (from F2.8) G.Zuiko 42mm F1.7, with 7 elements. It's one of the finest lenses ever fitted to a prosumer rangefinder and delivers stunning results. It's coated but my advice is to fit a 49mm lens hood because it's not flare proof.

The shutter is an all mechanic, 10 speed Seiko FLA going from 1s to 1/500s plus B. It's automatically set by the light meter when in Auto exposure mode, but can be used in manual. Not a great quality shutter, but it does what is needed. 

The battery is needed to operate the light meter, not the shutter itself.

Be careful: The camera has automatic program and manual mode ONLY. You can't select shutter or aperture priority setting one of the "A"s and using the other ring. You must set both rings on A or neither one ! There is NO WAY to use it in aperture priority or in shutter priority.

I'll not be going deep on specs and details. The only drawbacks I found on this camera are:

• No depth of field scale. 
• Rangefinder not the best.
• Parallax affected spot meter.
• The light meter sensor is beside the viewfinder, not inside the filter thread, so you need to remember to compensate the exposure if you plan to use filters with densities higher than 1.
• The light meter is not coupled when in manual mode
• Of course, it uses that dreadful MR-9/PX13 mercury cell, keep things simple and use a Zinc-Air from Wein one instead.

The good things:

• Stunning lens
• Has a rangefinder
• Auto exposure and manual override
• Flashmatic* system. Fantastic !

I prefer the Olympus 35RC over the 35SP. It's smaller, has a CDS light sensor inside the filter thread area (allowing automatic factor compensation) and works in shutter priority or manual mode (again, unmetered).

More information here:

https://www.cameraquest.com/olysp.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/olympus/35-sp.htm

* The Flashmatic system allows you to use a manual mode flash in a truly automatic way. All you need is to set the flash guide number on the proper camera dial and the camera will choose the correct aperture according to the focused subject distance. 100% foolproof.