Olympus Trip 35 1/200th & 1/40th Manual Mode Modification

Since I posted my original guide on how to lock down the Olympus Trip 35's shutter to the 1/200th setting, I've gotten quite a bit of hits on the subject, and a handful of blog posts linking back to my modification. So the first thing I'm going to to here is take a moment quickly to link back to a bunch of them to show that I care.

• alspix stuff
• Batteries Not Included
• Olympus / Zuiko Blog
• Olympus Trip 35 Blog

Now, the most interesting of these for me was the alspix stuff blog, which took my original mod one step forward, and added a control for 1/40th & 1/200th. What was even more interesting to me was the comment posted by Cliff van der Geugten which outlines a technique to select either speed without the use of internal or external modification. I immediately tried his technique with both of my trips, and on each one it failed.

Determined that an internal mechanism was possible to make the shutter speed switch, I took them both apart and started studying. After a while of studying it, I was convinced that being able to switch shutter speeds is what the manual listed as a feature called "Self Shutter release button locking system for under exposure." with absolutely no description on how to engage this feature.

My two camera's couldn't handle this feature very robustly. They would switch to 1/200th, but adjusting the aperture would cause it to go back to 1/40th, and shooting at f/16 or f/22 would cause it to randomly pick between the two shutter speeds.

However, after reviewing the internal mechanisms on my camera, I think the reason it doesn't work is just due to the age, and certain springs loosening up which resulted in a small bit of play in some of the moving parts that was causing the sporadic behavior. So, your Olympus Trip 35 may be in tip top condition to be 1/200th & 1/40th manually as is. So, just to add to the Internet lore on the subject, I'm going to write my own copy on the method outlined by Mr. van der Geugten.

How to see if your Olympus Trip 35 can be fully manual without modifications.

Step 1

The first step requires that your meter still works, and involves tricking it into setting in a position that will allow a 1/200th exposure setting.

1a) Cover the light meter with your hand while the camera is in 'A' mode, and with the shutter button half depressed, rotate the aperture ring to any f/stop.

I feel this is the easiest method, but didn't work on my late model Trip due to a design change on the shutter lock for underexposure. It will be apparent if you can't depress the shutter button very far when the red flag comes up. With my early trip, it will push down to the point where if I keep to much pressure on it while rotating the aperture ring, a shot will fire. The newer model gets stopped before the internal mechanism can get up to the 1/200th position.

1b) If the underexposure doesn't work, then try aiming the camera at the brightest thing you can (like the sun) and hope that it gets into the 1/200th range. Depress the exposure button to the point where it is about to shoot, and then rotate the aperture ring off of the 'A' Setting.

1c) If the camera can't get past the underexposure method, and you fear the 'making sure it is metering for 1/200th' method, you can remove to top plate of the camera, and do some internal modification to allow the camera to not freeze on underexposure. If you watch the insides while trying to exposure in underexposure conditions, there is a little 'L' shaped piece of metal that slides over and blocks the shutter button from going all the way down. Grab a pair of pliers & straighten it out. No more shutter lock.

Step 2: Determine if your camera can handle the 1/200th toggle as-is.

Now that you have selected a method from step 1, just test it. There is a noticeable difference between how the two shutter speeds sound, so you should be able to just listen closely to tell what shutter speed just fired. The 1/200th is just a quick, single sound, while the 1/40ths speed sort of has two sounds to it.

Ideally, the camera will not drop back down to 1/40th until you set the aperture ring back to 'A'. So set it on 2.8, and fire off a few shots. Then advance the aperture ring up a stop and fire off a few more. Continue till you've run through all the F-stops. On my particular camera, the low f-stop all worked fine, but when it got up to the F/16 & F/22 range, the shutter speed would be selected almost at random.

Also, it was a common between both of my Trips to slip back to 1/40th while changing the aperture setting. This can be easily checked for by watching the shutter release button. In 1/200th mode the release button will stay semi depressed. If it slips back to 1/40th when the aperture ring moves, the button will pop back up to its normal place. I found that this can be circumvented by depressing the shutter slightly while adjusting the aperture.

There you have it. If your camera passes steps 1 & 2 without failure, then you have full manual control without the need for modification. But, if you are in the same boat as me where you don't like holding down the button to change apertures, and/or get sporadic shutter speeds, then progress to to step 3.

Step 3: Internal modification to guarantee 1/200th & 1/40th manual control.

I need to get some photos of the modifications that I made, so this step isn't complete yet. However, it is a fun one where I got to attack the innards of the camera with a Dremel tool.