steve gandy

enigmatic descriptions of the tools of the trade by Steve Gandy on his cameraquest site brings these babies to life. A sample of his prose. "Produced from 1969 to about 1976, the Olympus 35 SP has the distinction of being the only 35 Rangefinder with a dual metering system: spot or centerweighted readings. This is amazing since the camera is over 30 years old and to date no other RF has equaled the 35 SP's dual metering. Yes indeed, it was far ahead of its time. If you don't count the Leica M5 and CL with their large spot meters, the 35 SP is also the only 35 rangefinder with spot metering! Besides that, the 35 SP was the 1st camera with AE exposure AND spot metering! " As you can see he really hits his stride when talking about the compact 35's of the 70's.

[Nikon 1 1948 , Rollei 16S 1966 to 1972 and the Olympus 35 SP 1969 to about 1976]