Olympus 35 DC
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| Olympus 35 DC, a small 35mm rangefinder with superb lens and automatic exposure settings image by oldglass (Image rights) |
Introduced in 1971, the Olympus 35 DC is the fully automatic sibling of the renowned Olympus 35 RD. Aside from automatically selecting the best combination of shutter speed and aperture for the scene metered by the camera's CdS "eye", the 35 DC has the same body construction, rangefinder assembly, and more importantly, the same F.Zuiko 40mm/1.7 lens as the one on the RD.
To compensate for the lack of control (other than ISO and focusing), this camera has the BLC (Back Light Compensation) button on the camera's back. This button if depressed, will narrow the metering to the rangefinder patch, giving the lighting around this area more "priority", thus adjusting the exposure settings accordingly.
There are two variants of this model. Both are as described above, but one variant also has a battery check button, while the other has an overide button for the low-light limiter that normally prevents the camera from operating in low-light conditions that would cause exposure time to exceed 1/15 of a second. These features seem to be mutually exclusive: neither variant has the other's additional feature.
Links
- Olympus 35 DC user manual at Butkus.org
- A review of the Olympus 35 DC in french
- Will Gunadi's mini-review and test roll results on RangefinderForum.com
- Wagner Lungov's overview of the 35 DC
- Olympus 35 DC at Cameraquest
