Olympus 35SP
I took a look at my Lightroom catalogue that holds my film pictures to see how long I have had this camera and apparently its been 4 1/2 years. It certainly doesn’t feel like it, because every time I have a chance to use this camera it feels special like its the first time. Back in 2011 I compared the Canon QL17 and the Yashica Electro 35 GX but this camera beats them both. That’s not to say that those aren’t fantastic cameras but the lens on the Olympus is just that little bit better. The SP has a 7 element lens that is very sharp and well corrected with just a touch of colour fringing in extreme contrast conditions that would tax any lens. I have to admit that I don’t tend to use the spot metering which is actually where the SP in SP comes from but the center weighted metering works very well in its own right. The greatest effect seen within the area of the focus patch at about 20 degrees which drops to 6 degrees for the spot metering. And of course there is the ability to do full manual aperture and shutter speed if you don’t want to use shutter priority or there is fully automatic metering if all you want to do is focus and compose. In automatic mode the camera selects from 1/15 to 1/250 second so if you want to use the camera outside that range you should opt for manual settings. In manual operation it expands to 1sec and 1/500sec The shutter itself has a very definitive “THWACK” that leaves you no doubt that it has done its job. If I was to have one complaint about the Olympus SP it would be the focus lever tucked up against the camera body. I prefer to use a focus ring at the business end of the lens.
