Olympus 35 RC (1970)

Name: Olympus 35 RC
Brand: Olympus

The Olympus 35 RC is a compact 35mm rangefinder introduced in January 1970. It was a budget step up from the fixed-lens 35 EC. It launched at roughly $70 (¥15,000) and was aimed at the mass market: a small, light camera with a fine 42mm f/2.8 lens and a superimposed double-image rangefinder for focusing.

The shutter is a Seiko ESF with speeds from 1/15 to 1/500 sec. A built-in CdS meter cell sits in the lens barrel and powers the shutter in full auto shutter-preferred AE mode. The viewfinder shows both shutter speed and f-stop information, which reviewers found genuinely informative. Film speed range covers ASA 25-800. The body measures 112 × 71 × 48 mm, and Olympus and most independent sources cite the weight as 480g (Lomography alone claims 505g). It has a hot shoe and PC terminal for flash with X sync, and a single-stroke lever wind for film advance.

User reports agree on the quirks. The rangefinder patch is small and dim, hard to see in low light, and the aperture ring detents are weak. The battery check button is all but useless, since there is no actual meter check circuitry behind it. The meter depends on a 1.35V mercury PX-13 battery that is no longer manufactured, so modern use requires a zinc-air or Wein cell adaptation. Meter cells age and fail, so dead-meter examples surface often. Light seals and foam around the back fail, as is typical for 1970s Olympus, and the Seiko ESF shutter can stick if not fired regularly. HI-FI-Stereo (July 1988, p.109) was covering audio rather than cameras in the chunk we hold, so no period photographic press verdict survives in the archive.

Clean working examples have been changing hands recently in the $50-$150 range, with rougher bodies around $25-$50. Sources disagree on the lens formula. Olympus itself says 4 elements in 6 groups, while Camera-wiki and Vintage Camera Labs both say 6 elements in 4 groups.