Last spring the opportunity came up for a family trip to Mexico City. A week before our departure, I acquired an Olympus 35 RC from a camera show. I thought this would be useful as a casual travel camera loaded with a roll of Kodak Portra 160 Color.
The Olympus 35 RC is a small fixed lens rangefinder with shutter priority auto-exposure, and the option for manual operation with or without the meter. It surely is one of the smallest full frame rangefinders. It is heavy for its size and “pocketable” for those with loose fitting attire. The meter function calls for a 1.35 volt battery, so I installed a 1.4 volt zinc-air hearing aid battery, and set the ASA to 125 (1/3rd stop lower than Portra’s 160). For simple snapshots while sight-seeing, I used this auto-exposure function. A half press of the shutter locks the exposure value, providing great flexibility.
I am very fond of Mexico. I find the culture, art, people, language, and food all to be delightful.
During our stay, Mexico City had clear blue skies under the tropical sun. While the city’s elevation of 2,240 meters, (7,350 feet) moderated the heat. We spent most of our time in the quiet neighborhoods of Condessa and Roma Norte where the architecture features Art Deco and other designs from the early 20th century. Away from the grand boulevards, its streets are sheltered by magnificent trees that have thrived since the buildings were new.
In these neighborhoods, the brilliant sun and dense tree shade revealed high contrast images. This contrast did not display of my iPhone snapshots, where the photo software tones down highlights and lightens shadows. This muted contrast is not the case with the Olympus RC35’s 42mm Zuiko lens and Portra 160 film. On film the tree shade is almost black. The higher contrast interpretation of the film is closer to what my eyes saw, where the trees provide distinct relief from the harsh tropical sun.
My intent with the compact camera and color film was to capture holiday snapshots, and while we did make some excursions to the city’s magnificent sights, the atmosphere of the shaded Condessa and Roma Norte neighborhoods seduced me.
Here are some images from under the dense tree cover, highlighting the elegant buildings on my favorite streets. I did not want the camera’s auto-exposure to lighten the tree shade and wash out the color of the buildings, so I used manual settings. Since there was brilliant sun overhead, I set the aperture to f/8 and the shutter to 1/500: the same settings as 125 ASA requires for full sunlight.
The Olympus 35 RC served as a dual-purpose camera for me. When sight-seeing with my family I set it to Auto and used it as a “point, focus and shoot” pocket camera. When I set out on a photo-walk, I switched it to Manual mode, judged the light, and took my time composing shots. While I am pleased with most of the results, the tiny size of this camera was a challenge. Specifically, the viewfinder, rangefinder patch, and the short 40 degree range of focus on the lens, are all extraordinarily small. This is a marvel of miniaturization, I am sure, but a bit awkward in use.
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