A Super short Review of the Olympus 35RD

[raytoei]

I received my Olympus 35RD about 2 weeks ago and I got it back yesterday
after a Clean, Adjust and Lubricate (CLA). I shot a roll yesterday while I was
wandering around in Chinatown for about 20 minutes.

This is a much coveted compact rangefinder. Good examples of this camera
go for about 200 - 300 USD depending on the condition. One reason why it is much
in demand is because it is small and compact, has a fast f.zuiko 40mm f1.7 lens and is
mechanical as well as providing shutter priority.

This camera is only slightly larger than the smallest Olympus 35 RF camera, the 35RC.
But unlike the 35RC which is limited to 1/15 sec as well as sporting a relatively slower
f2.8 lens, the 35RD goes down to 1/2 sec and shares the same speed as the 42mm g.zuiko
found on the much larger 35SP sibling.

Also, the 35RD meter is within the lens filter enclosure like the RC, this makes filter
compensation easier, the 35SP requires you to manually calculate the compensation if a
colored filter is used, as the meter lies outside of the lens filter area.

The 40mm f1.7 lens was very popular with Minolta Hi-Matic 7Sii and Yashica GSN adopting this lens as well
as the smaller Olympus 35RD. The f.zuiko is supposedly not as good as the g.zuiko found in the 35SP or 35 SPN
model. But frankly, I find all zuiko lens to be very good and sharp.

The camera uses manual exposure as well as Shutter priority like the Hi-Matic 7Sii, in shutter priority you select the
shutter speed and the camera will select the best aperture to fit the exposure. I find this quite novel as I have
only used aperture priority previously. During the hot weather yesterday, I found that I tend to select lowest
hand-held speed in Shutter Priority, eg. 1/60or 1/125, which resulted in very narrow apertures (f11 / f8) which
gave very sharp pictures.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

Camera: Olympus 35RD
Film: Polypan f ISO 50
Developer: Rodinal stand for 40mins with mid-point agitation.

Thanks for viewing.

FIN

raytoei

(i previously posted a review of the 35DC, this is similar to the RD except
that the DC is auto-exposure camera, the only user intervention is focusing)

 

[raytoei]

Was trying to figure out the lack of DOF on the 35RD,
found out something interesting:

the Distance Ring markings on the 35RD correspond to the DOF at f8:

on the ring M - 0.85 - 1 - 1.2 - 1.5 - 2 - 3 - 5 - Infinity
using DOF master.com:

focus 1.0m at f8 -> dof is 0.87 to 1.17 , ring is 0.85 to 1.2
focus 1.2m at f8 -> dof is 1.02 to 1.45 , ring is 1.00 to 1.5
focus 1.5m at f8 -> dof is 1.23 to 1.92 , ring is 1.20 to 2.0
focus 2.0m at f8 -> dof is 1.55 to 2.83 , ring is 1.50 to 3.0
focus 3.0m at f8 -> dof is 2.08 to 5.40 , ring is 2.00 to 5.0
focus 5.0m at f8 -> dof is 2.87 to 19.5 , ring is 3.0 to INF

so i can use hyperfocal distance focusing if i focus at f8 using the focus ring markings as
a guide to the DOF.

raytoei

 

[ed9119]

more images !