Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Olympus Trip 35

Olympus · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back · 1967

Also known as: Olympus Trip · オリンパストリップ35

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Trip 35, chrome shutter release 35mm compact 1967–1978 — No separate figure published
Trip 35, black plastic shutter release 35mm compact 1978–1984 — No separate figure published
Trip 35, ASA 25–200 film-speed ring (early) 35mm compact 1967 — No separate figure published
Trip 35, black body 35mm compact 1968 six-digit numbers No figure published; described as made in far smaller numbers than the chrome
  1. "Over ten million units were sold" is English Wikipedia's sentence, and its footnote points at Olympus's own history of the camera — which makes the most-repeated fact about the Trip 35 a manufacturer's claim rather than an independent count. camera-wiki prints the same ten-million figure, footnoted to the same Olympus history, and then qualifies it in the same sentence: the figure is likely to include the later plastic-bodied Olympus cameras that carried Trip branding, because the original Trip 35's serial numbers only run to about 5,400,000. Eckman reaches the same place from the other end: "Many sites on the Internet today suggest that up to 10 million Trip 35s were sold, but based on serial number research, the actual number is probably closer to half that."
  2. The counter-figure needs the same scrutiny as the figure it corrects, and it does not survive it intact. camera-wiki's 5,400,000 is footnoted "Serial numbers collected by the Olympus Trip Flickr group" — a crowd-sourced collection of numbers, never published as a table. Eckman cites "serial number research" and names no source at all. Two accounts that look like independent corroboration may therefore be one body of evidence read twice; nothing in either establishes that they are not. Neither Olympus nor any archive has published a serial ledger for the Trip 35, so the honest position is that the ten-million claim is a manufacturer's and the five-million answer to it is an enthusiasts' tally, and that no audited count of this camera exists in either direction.
  3. There is a mechanism for the inflation, and Eckman names it: Olympus reused the Trip name on a series of simple autofocus cameras in production from 1984 to 2000. A sales total for "the Trip" that spans 1967 to 2000 is a different quantity from a production total for the Trip 35, and nothing in the ten-million claim distinguishes them.
  4. A third figure exists and belongs on the record even though nothing supports it: Have A Nice Trip states that approximately 7.5 million cameras were sold, without saying where the number comes from.
  5. Whatever the true total, the ranking survives it. Josh Solomon's point that the Trip outsold the Nikon F and the Leica M2 by millions holds at five million as easily as at ten, and Eckman's verdict — that even at five million it remains one of the most successful single camera models ever made — is the safe form of the claim.
  6. Seventeen years in production with two documented running changes is a remarkable ratio. Neither change is functional in any way a photograph would show: a button material and the top of a film-speed ring.
  7. Mike Eckman scores the camera 13.0 out of 15, the same score he gives the Nikon F3, and awards a bonus point for the balance of size, ease of use and quality.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A selenium cell in a honeycomb ring around the front of the lens. There is no battery compartment anywhere on the camera and no battery to go flat
  • A red flag rises in the finder when there is not enough light, and it locks the shutter release rather than merely warning — the camera refuses to make the exposure
  • Two shutter speeds and no more: 1/40 and 1/200, chosen by the meter and not by the photographer
  • Four zone-focus click stops marked with icons — one head, two heads, three heads, a mountain — with the selected symbol repeated in a window inside the finder
  • An A position on the aperture ring for automatic exposure; turning past it to a numbered f/stop sets 1/40 for flash and takes the meter out of the decision
  • A cable-threaded release, a hot shoe, a fold-out rewind knob and a thumbwheel wind on the back
  • A three-character date code stamped under the film pressure plate: plant character, last digit of the year, then month, 1–9 for January to September and X, Y, Z for October to December

Trip 35, chrome shutter release:

  • The shutter release button is bright plated metal, cable-threaded, flush in the top plate

Trip 35, black plastic shutter release:

  • A black plastic release in place of the chrome one; otherwise identical from the outside

Trip 35, ASA 25–200 film-speed ring (early):

  • The ring at the front of the lens stops at ASA 200; later cameras run to ASA 400

Trip 35, black body:

  • Black-painted body rather than the usual satin chrome and black, brassing at the edges with wear
  • Six-digit serial numbers, where most Trips carry seven

Serial-range notes

six digits, earliest cameras
Eckman reports an online claim that the earliest Trips carry six-digit numbers and that seven digits appear around 1971–72, and is explicit that he is relaying it rather than vouching for it. The black-bodied cameras are six-digit, which is consistent with their being early.
up to about 5,400,000
camera-wiki gives roughly 5,400,000 as the ceiling of the original Trip 35's serial numbers, and uses it as the argument against the ten-million sales figure. This is the single most important number on the page and it is worth knowing exactly where it comes from: the footnote camera-wiki attaches to it reads "Serial numbers collected by the Olympus Trip Flickr group". It is a crowd-sourced tally of numbers seen on cameras, not a factory record, and the tally itself has never been published as a table anyone can audit. A collected maximum is also a floor rather than a ceiling — it is the highest number anybody happened to report, and the true top of the run can only be higher.
pressure-plate code, all cameras
The serial number does not date a Trip 35. The code under the film pressure plate does: three characters, plant then year-digit then month, with X, Y and Z for October to December. Have A Nice Trip gives the worked example "N1Y = Nagano – 1971 – November", and notes that late cameras switch to a different four-character scheme with letters for years.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, hinged back
Finder
Direct-vision bright-frame finder with projected 40mm frame lines, a window repeating the selected focus-zone icon, and a red under-exposure flag; no rangefinder of any kind · no rangefinder image
Shutter
twin-blade between-the-lens leaf · 1/40 and 1/200 only, selected by the meter on automatic; any manually set aperture gives 1/40 · flash sync Hot shoe with M and X sync; X at 1/40
Film advance
thumbwheel on the back; automatic resetting exposure counter
Back
hinged, non-interchangeable
Meter
Selenium cell ringed around the lens, coupled, needing no battery. On the A setting the meter picks f/2.8 to f/22 at either 1/40 or 1/200; below its working range a red flag appears in the finder and the release locks. Film speed is set on a ring at the front of the lens, ASA 25–200 on early cameras and ASA 25–400 later.
Weight
390 g
Dimensions
124 × 72 × 57 mm
Country
Japan
Original price
US$59.95 in 1968, from a Ponder & Best catalogue page reproduced by Mike Eckman, who puts that at roughly $450 in present money. No Japanese list price has been found in the sources consulted here. (today $540)
Accessories
Hot-shoe flashguns — the Trip syncs at 1/40 on M and X · Olympus ever-ready leather case

Figures we worked out rather than found: Ten million claimed against about 5,400,000 serial numbers leaves a gap of roughly 4.6 million cameras. The subtraction is this project's; no source states it as a figure · Seventeen years of production against two documented running changes — one to a button material, one to the top of a film-speed ring. The count of changes is this project's reading of what the sources actually document, not a claim that nothing else altered

Where sources disagree

Total production
  • Over ten million sold (English Wikipedia, footnoted to Olympus's own history of the camera)
  • Approximately 7.5 million sold (Have A Nice Trip, olympustrip.co.uk, unsourced)
  • Probably about five million — 'closer to half' of the ten-million claim, on serial-number research (Mike Eckman)
  • Serial numbers running only to about 5,400,000, the ten-million figure attributed to later plastic-bodied Trip-branded cameras (camera-wiki, footnoted to serial numbers collected by an Olympus Trip enthusiasts' group on Flickr)

Better supported: Unresolved

Four figures across a factor of two, and the spread has a plausible cause rather than being simple error. Olympus reused the Trip name on autofocus compacts made from 1984 to 2000, so a corporate sales total under that name need not be a production total for this camera. But neither side of the argument rests on a document. The ten-million figure originates with the manufacturer and is unaudited; the 5,400,000 comes from a crowd-sourced collection of serial numbers that has never been published as a table, and Eckman's independent-looking arrival at "closer to half" cites unnamed "serial number research" that may be the same collection. Counting serials is the better method in principle, and this particular count cannot be checked. Olympus has issued no production figure for the Trip 35 alone, and no one else has published an auditable one.

Date of the change from chrome to black plastic shutter release
  • June 1978 (Have A Nice Trip, stated both in its history of the camera and in its listing for the replacement part)
  • 'At some point in the late 70s or early 80s' (Mike Eckman)

Better supported: Have A Nice Trip

Only one source gives a month, and it does not say where the month came from. Eckman's range contains it, so the two are compatible rather than contradictory — but a reader dating a camera from the button alone should know that the precision is one specialist's, unattributed.

Weight (grams)
  • 390 g (English Wikipedia)
  • 410 g (Mike Eckman's specification table; Paul Lamb at 35mmc quotes the same figure)

Better supported: Unresolved

Twenty grams apart, with two sources on the higher figure and one on the lower. Neither says whether film was loaded. Recorded rather than averaged.

Designer
  • A design team led by Yoshihisa Maitani (Have A Nice Trip)
  • 'Olympus' design house, fresh off the ingenious half-frame Pen F' — no individual named (Josh Solomon, Casual Photophile)
  • Not a Maitani camera: the Trip 'didn't have the credentials of the Pen's designer Yoshihisa Maitani' (Mike Eckman)

Better supported: Unresolved

The attribution matters because Maitani's name sells cameras. Eckman's sentence is the clearest statement that the Trip was not his; Casual Photophile's own retrospective on Maitani lists the Pen, the Pen F, the OM-1 and the XA and does not mention the Trip 35 at all, which is an absence rather than a denial. Against that stands one specialist site crediting a team he led. Olympus's published chronology settles nothing: it does not name a designer for the Trip 35 either.

Black-bodied Trip 35, years
  • About 1968 to 1970 (Paul Lamb at 35mmc, whose own black camera carries a September 1970 pressure-plate code and the six-digit serial 587618)
  • 1968–1969 (a reader comment on Mike Eckman's review)

Better supported: Paul Lamb

A dated pressure plate outranks a recollection, and Lamb's camera is itself the evidence for the later end of his range. Neither source gives a production figure, and no article consulted here explains why the black finish was dropped.

What reviewers say

History

The Trip 35 is the camera almost everyone’s family owned, and the only interesting question about it is how many families that was.

Start with what is not in dispute. Introduced in 1967, discontinued in 1984, seventeen years in the catalogue. A coated D.Zuiko 40mm f/2.8 of four elements in three groups, front-cell focusing, Tessar type, and by common consent very good indeed. A selenium ring around the lens driving programmed automatic exposure with no battery in the camera at all. Two shutter speeds, 1/40 and 1/200, and the photographer never learns which was used. Four zone-focus click stops with pictograms — a head, two heads, three heads, a mountain — repeated in a window inside the finder. And a red flag that rises when the light falls short and locks the release, so the camera declines to take the photograph rather than take a bad one. Turning the aperture ring off A to a numbered f/stop fixes 1/40 for flash and is the only manual control there is.

Now the number. English Wikipedia says over ten million units were sold, and its footnote points at Olympus’s own history of the camera — so the most-repeated fact about the Trip 35 comes from the company that sold it. camera-wiki prints the same figure from the same Olympus page and contests it in the same breath: it likely folds in the later plastic-bodied Olympus cameras that carried Trip branding, because the original Trip 35’s serial numbers stop at around 5,400,000. Mike Eckman appears to arrive there independently, writing that serial-number research puts the true figure at probably about half the ten million, and adding the mechanism — Olympus reused the Trip name on a line of simple autofocus cameras made from 1984 to 2000. Have A Nice Trip offers a fourth figure, approximately 7.5 million, with no source behind it.

Then follow the counter-figure back, because it deserves the same suspicion as the claim it corrects. camera-wiki’s footnote for the 5,400,000 says it is serial numbers collected by an Olympus Trip enthusiasts’ group — a tally of what owners reported seeing, never published as a table, and by construction a highest-observed rather than a highest-issued number. Eckman’s phrase is “serial number research”, with nothing attached. The two readings that look like corroboration may be one pool of hobbyist observation counted twice. So the position is not that the manufacturer is wrong and the serials are right; it is that a marketing total and an unauditable tally are the only two things anyone has, and the correct answer to how many Trip 35s were made is that nobody knows. The gap between the two is on the order of 4.6 million cameras, which is more than most famous cameras made in total.

What changed across seventeen years is, on the published record, almost nothing. The shutter release went from chrome metal to black plastic — Have A Nice Trip dates that to June 1978, Eckman only to the late 1970s or early 1980s — and the film-speed ring, originally topping out at ASA 200, was extended to 400 at a date nobody has published. Those two changes are on different axes and should not be assumed to line up. Early cameras came in an all-black finish as well, six-digit serial numbers, made in far smaller numbers than the chrome; Paul Lamb, who handles a few each year, dates them roughly 1968 to 1970 from a camera of his own whose pressure plate reads September 1970, while a reader of Eckman’s review remembers 1968–69.

That pressure plate is the identification tool that matters, because the serial number is not one. Three characters under the film plate give the assembly plant, the last digit of the year, and the month — 1 to 9 for January to September, then X, Y and Z — so N1Y is Nagano, 1971, November. A Trip can therefore be dated to the month by opening the back, and cannot be dated at all from the number engraved on it.

Who designed it is the last open question, and it is open in an unusually clean way. Have A Nice Trip credits a design team led by Yoshihisa Maitani. Casual Photophile credits Olympus’s design house, fresh off the Pen F, and names nobody; its separate retrospective on Maitani lists the Pen, the Pen F, the OM-1 and the XA, and does not mention the Trip 35. Eckman puts it most directly, writing that the new camera did not have the credentials of the Pen’s designer Yoshihisa Maitani. Olympus’s own published chronology names no designer either. The most-owned serious compact of the film era may or may not be the work of the most famous camera designer Japan produced, and the sources that would settle it have not been written.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Olympus Trip 35
Olympus Trip 35 — Michael Gatchell, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Olympus Trip 35
Olympus Trip 35 — Cássio Abreu from CAMPINAS, Brasil, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Olympus Trip 35
Yukon River at Whitehorse — shot on an Olympus Trip 35 (Anthony DeLorenzo) — Anthony DeLorenzo from Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Olympus Trip 35? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $110 across 156 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $90–$130). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $110.

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2026-09-11$110$90–$130156
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Related: Olympus XA1

Sources (9)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.