One of the amazing plus points of owning the Olympus Trip is the ability to be able to age it within a month of its manufacturing date.
It is often thought that the unique serial number on the top of each camera indicates its age… and it does… sort of… but it is not that accurate.
Ultimately, the serial number on an Olympus Trip 35 camera does *not* give you a precise date of manufacture. The only way to tell is to open the film compartment and carefully remove the pressure plate on the back of the door (this is quite easy. It simply slides free from its locating pins) and then look for the code on the back of the pressure plate.
The code consists of 3 characters:
1st = Japanese character or letter (in later models) signifying the assembly plant.
2nd number representing the last digit of the year of assembly.
(e.g. 5 = 1975, 0 = 1980).
3rd number or letter representing the month of assembly,
1-9 for Jan-Sep, X, Y, Z for Oct-Dec.
… for example; N1Y = Nagano – 1971 – November
Of course the TRIP 35 was manufactured between 1967 and 1984, so if you are unsure if you have a 1968 or 1978 model, the chrome shutter button is the earlier and the black the later. The actual swap from Chrome to Black button happened in June 1978.
Trip 35 Production Factories (Update: 15.10.2024).
Finding information on the production facilities Olympus used to manufacture the Trip has been difficult, but throiugh various research, I have come up with the following production units which are identified by a letter or symbol on the film pressure plate.
日 [effectively S] – Shibuya [Outer Tokyo], H Hachioji Shi (Central Tokyo), K – Kyoto and N – Nagano.
If you have any further suggestion or insight, please let me know.
