Olympus 35 Trip aperture problem

[Todd Frederick]

Today I received an Olympus 35 Trip in nice condition but it has an inoperative aperture in both auto and manual. The aperture does not open in both modes. I do some camera restorations so I'm not hesitant to open a
$16 camera to try to solve this problem. I'm looking for a few suggestions before I do exploratory surgery!😀

 

[jesse1dog]

Hi Todd

Well that's disappointing to say the least!
I've just put together my latest Trip so can't see what might have caused the problem.
As the camera will fire 'on manual' with the lens hood on it doesn't sound as if its a meter issue.
I think I would take the plunge and do a bit of dissembly if I were you.
The top and bottom plates come off easily enough. To get the lens assebly out from the body casting you will have to take the front covering off. Put the pieces onto some greasproof paper to preserve the adhesive so that they stick back OK at the end - and it prevents dust etc settling on the sticky surface.
There are 2 plates - one on each side of the lens assembly. They are attached by a screw each. These can be difficult to shift - on one of my Trips I had to free them with sharp tap on the end of the screwdriver! After you have these plates off it's another couple of screws and removal of the small plate holding the wires together. The most fiddly issue is dealing with the wires and remembering where they went when you come to put the camera together again.
A couple of Trips I bought didn't work either. I decided that both must have been dropped and as a result some of the levers had jumped out of place - a close examination and general playing aroung sorted these issues. Some judicious use of 'lighter fuel' on various pivot points made a big difference too.
If you make progress, before you reassemble clean the viewfinder - This has a capping piece of black paper easily removed and stuck back on.

Oh, and obviously, work on a clean surface and place the screws in a small container as you go. I think they are all the same size but I might be wrong there! The last time I worked on a camera a small piece flew out when I took the top off and I still haven't found it. Luckily I had a spare camera to use for parts.

Trips aren't expensive especially worn ones. If yours is in excellent cosmetic condition I suppose if it comes to the worst you could buy a 'worker' and cannibalize.

Hope this makes sense and gives you a bit of help.

All the best -

jesse

 

[AzzA]

Yeah, thats a bit annoying, luckily they're cheap 🙂
Yeah, i think you should have a go at taking it apart. I have no camera restoration experience but i managed to take one of mine apart and put it back together easily enough. It sounds like you'd have no problem. From memory i think you'll need 00# size philips head screwdriver for most of the screws (if not all).

Jesse, are you certain about the meter not being the issue?
One of my cameras doesnt have the red warnign indicator but still fires with the lens cap on. It also works perfectly when the cap is off. I may of misinterpreted what you said though. (Most probably). The meter probably isnt the issue, but i dont think it can be rule dout totally yet.

If anything i just said confused the matter more, ignore it and go with what Jesse said, haha.
cheers 🙂

 

[Todd Frederick]

Jesse, thank you for the tips and repair details. I just repaired a sticky shutter on a Konica C35 using a similar method that the Gman guided me through.

What is a mystery to me on this Olympus is that the aperture is open to it's smallest size at rest. I see the same opening on all of the photos of the cameras on eBay so that must be it's normal position.

What is happening to my camera is that the shutter operates but the aperture ring will not move or open to the full aperture at all. It simply stays the same size. I don't think it is a meter issue since I also can't adjust it in the manual position. Not ever having seen a working sample of this camera I'm not sure what is supposed to happen with the aperture ring.

The camera cost me about $15 plus $5 shipping so it is a good candidate for a DIY repair.

 

[Mark Wood]

The Trip 35 operates in a slightly idiosyncratic way. You can set the aperture to any manual setting but at first sight, nothing will appear to happen - the blades stay closed. You don't actually see the blades open until you fire the shutter. Try it in a fairly dimly lit room though, by setting the aperture manually, and then firing the shutter. (Keep the button pressed down to see where the blades end up.) Provided the exposure meter doesn't think it's too bright for that particular aperture at the flash sync. speed (1/40th second I think which is set when you change to manual aperture setting), you'll get the aperture you've set. If it thinks it's too bright, it will override your aperture setting and give you something smaller.

It fooled me the first time I looked at one in a second hand shop and I assumed it wasn't working - it was!

 

[Mark Wood]

PS. In "auto" mode, the Trip has two shutter speeds (1/200th and 1/40th second). You can test it by firstly pointing the camera at a very bright light and firing it and then firing it in a dim place. The difference in sound from the shutter is fairly easy to hear. In this mode, the aperture opens up (from the essentially fully closed resting position) and stops opening at the value that the meter thinks is correct. The shutter then fires. If it's too dark for 1/40th at f2.8 in auto mode, the aperture opens up fully, the red bar appears in the viewfinder and the shutter won't fire.