Last year, I started collecting Olympus rangefinder cameras from the 60’s and 70’s. I’m after a 35RC, a 35RD, and a 35SP. So far, I have an RC and an RD. SP’s are harder to come by and quite expensive. RCs tend to be the cheapest so, I got one of the those first.
Photography has always been my main passion. Music has always come a close second, not playing it – I have no musical ability – but listening to it. I love seeing it played live, and, now and again, taking it’s photograph.
I started reading numerous blogs and posts from different authors and the recommendation of a Olympus 35 RC rangefinder camera kept on coming up. Most notably on this very 35mmc blog and on Ken Rockwell’s site. Eventually the GAS took over. I simply had to have one, I watched several on eBay, bid and lost them all.
The 1980s Hollywood stars Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the unlikely match to play twin brothers in the aptly named 1988 film, Twins (stick with me on this one). As the story unfolds, (spoiler alert) it turns out that there is some form of genetic engineering going on, and Devito is the left overs after the Uber-mensch that is Arney is created. Anyway, the principle here is that the SP and the RC are (not so identical) twins like Schwarzenegger and Devito.
I’ve got a bit of a habit for not just picking up a camera and shooting with it. Instead, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can modify them to improve the styling, ergonomics or functionality. The beauty of analogue photography is that there are so many unloved cameras available that it feels like I’m giving them another chance after they’ve been set aside or left in a drawer for years.
