The Olympus Trip AF: a mid-80s reinterpratation of a cult classic compact (All pics: Stephen Dowling)
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The original Olympus Trip 35 was one of the most enduring compact cameras of the 20th Century.
Released in 1967, at the start of a golden age of leisure and affordable travel, it was the right camera at the right time.
Designed by the visionary Yoshihisa Maitani, the Trip 35 stripped away all frills to leave a camera that would take a picture with zero fuss. With a light meter powered by a massive selenium cell around the lens, it didn’t even need batteries.
The Trip 35 sold millions of copies across an 18-year production run that lasted until the autofocus era. But the Trip name didn’t end with it.
Two years before the Trip 35 bowed out, Olympus unveiled a modern successor, the Trip AF. Like the original, it was a camera small enough to slip in the pocket. You advanced the film with the same kind of thumb wheel you’d find on the original Trip. But the Trip AF was all black instead of silver and its 35mm was – you guessed it by those two telltale letters – autofocus.
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