Back in March 2011 I started taking photos with my newly acquired Olympus Trip 35 cameras. Since then I’ve taken hundreds of photos with them and even went to China with them.
In China I gave one of them to my wife’s cousin and he takes excellent photos with it. I kept the Tripman one and the oldest one is safely put away in the basement.
I broke the Tripman one. I had it in my bag last week and put the bag down hard. As soon as I did it I thought that’s it and I was right. The shutter is no longer working and the inside has something rattling around that I can’t locate. Taking it apart didn’t help and after a while I gave up.
So I went to plan B and ordered a replacement from Tripman and another one from an eBay seller. I’m back to having three functional cameras. The new Tripman arrived today and I’m planning on taking lots of photos this afternoon.
The eBay one came Wednesday and I’ve already shot a roll with it. If there are no light leaks and the photos are okay, then I plan to strip the leatherette and put on a different one. I’ll let the kids decide which color.
Once again, anyone considering a film camera should take a chance with eBay and get one. Thanks to eBay sellers I now have two working ones and each one cost me less that $40 each including shipping. The Tripman version is more money, but I got that one because it just works, has a warranty, and is really in great condition.
If you don’t mind spending a little more then you just can’t go wrong with Tripman. They’re great reconditioned models and they ship quickly.
As for the broken one, I’ve sent an email to Streetshooter in the UK to see what the backlog on his services are. Just because I can’t fix it doesn’t mean I want to leave it broken.