Oly 35 RC shutter speed?

[Bill58]

What shutter speed do you usually use for daylight pics? Mine seems finicky as to speed. I wonder if I've got an intermittant meter problem?

Life would be simpler (or boring as hell) w/o vintage RF problems, wouldn't it?

[owenreading]

I tend to use 1/250 when I shoot 400 film (I have a job lot of HP5 to clear) because I never trust the top speed on old cameras. If I were taking 100 film in daylight (which I really should do) then I would probably drop down to 1/125. And yes, life would be simpler. But then you'd have to buy a digital camera.

[Bill58]

Owen:

Thanks--yesterday my RC wouldn't fire set on "A" and 250 in mid-day overcast daylight w/ 100 film. But it did fire @ 125. Is that normal?

[dll927]

It would be normal if there wasn't sufficient light for 1/250.

I bought an Oly 35RC new in 1974. At the time it came to be known as a quite dandy little camera. In 2000 I moved and in the process had some of my cameras sitting on the couch waiting to go to the car. One of the green-card movers swiped it, and I'm still p-o'd about it to this day. I did replace it with a n Oly Stylus, which is also a nice little machine, but I still wish I had that RC.

The RC had what would nowadays be called shutter priority. You set the shutter speed, and the camera took care of the aperture. And it had a leaf shutter, which might not be as prone to slowing down as a focal plane type.

[jaypolaski]

I shoot all of my shots using BDE. For ISO 400 film it goes as follows:

Shutter speed 1/250: bright sun f16, hazy sun f11, open shade f8 thick shade f5.6
Indoors with ambient sun 1/30 f4, indoor with only artificial light 1/30 f2.8.

These exposures are foolproof with HP5. I have yet to miss a shot.

[Kat]

A low light camera, the Olympus RC is not, IMO.

[iml]

Olympus 35 RC in low light (Tri-X pushed to 1600, mostly):

http://www.adweb.co.uk/ian/photography/nww/index.html

You need to use a handheld meter or your own judgement to manually set exposure. The built-in meter is insufficiently sensitive to be used in dark conditions. The 35 SP is better for low light because it has a faster lens (f1.7), but the 35RC is very useable with high speed film.

Ian

[Trius]

A bit OT, but the minimum EV of the 35SP is 3, so in stygian darkness it is not sensitive enough. Add to that the fact that the meter display in the viewfinder is very difficult to see in really dark conditions. I agree that an external meter is necessary for both, but especially the RC.

I suspect the SP is better for handheld slow speeds. For pushed film, as long as you can get to 1/15s on the RC it should be OK, but it would be interesting to see a comparison at that shutter speed between the RC and SP.

[iml]

Originally Posted by Trius

A bit OT, but the minimum EV of the 35SP is 3, so in stygian darkness it is not sensitive enough.

True, I don't use the SP meter in the dark either. In more normal conditions, the meters in both seem quite good, but they are both too insensitive for darker stuff. With the SP, I no longer use the meter much, as I don't like having to read the EV value in the VF and transfer it to the aperture ring, and I never like to shoot fully auto. I much prefer the RC's metering, even though it isn't available in manual mode. I tend to either use sunny 16 or put it in A mode and adjust the shutter speed to what I want, meter off a mid-tone, read the suggested aperture value and then set the aperture manually to that, and only re-meter and change the setting when the light changes. But I only shoot b&w film where there's plenty of exposure latitude.

I've shot them both at 1/15 and can't say I've noticed one being easier than the other, but I've never directly compared them in that respect. The RC is much lighter, of course, and smaller, so that in itself will probably make some difference.

Ian

[Bill58]

I finally took the "finicky" recently CLA'd RC to my expert repair guy and to my amazement he told me (thru an interpreter) that I should always set the shutter speed at 125 for proper autoexposure operation (shutter priority system). Since I have no manual, is that true?

[iml]

No, that isn't true.

Ian

[Bill58]

Ok--Where can I get a manual then?

Thanks,
Bill

[iml]

A Google for "Olympus 35 RC manual" will find it:

http://nwcollectorcamera.com/manuals...35rcmanual.htm

Ian

[Bill58]

Many thanks!!!