Olympus's 1998 fixed-focus 35mm compact — 34mm f/6.9 lens, 1/125s shutter, motor wind, auto flash, AA power
The Olympus Trip MD3 was a fixed-focus 35mm point-and-shoot launched in 1998, the third of the motor-drive Trip MD series that followed the Trip MD and MD2. It is a distinct model from the earlier Trip MD, aimed squarely at holiday snapshooters who wanted a camera with nothing to set.
The lens is an Olympus 34mm f/6.9 with three elements in three groups, fixed-focused from about 1.5m to infinity, behind a single 1/125-second shutter speed. Film speed is set automatically from DX coding for ISO 100-400 stock, defaulting to ISO 100 for uncoded film. A built-in flash with red-eye reduction lamp fires automatically in low light, film advance and rewind are motorised, and power comes from two AA alkaline or manganese cells — the manual notes NiCd and lithium cells are unsuitable.
With one shutter speed and a slow fixed-focus lens, this is a sunny-day and flash-range camera: fine for parties, beaches and holiday prints on ISO 400 film, but it offers no control for anything more ambitious. Its appeal today is as a cheap, simple entry into film with AA convenience.
Nothing functions without batteries, so test power-up, motor wind and rewind with fresh AAs. Confirm the flash charges and fires and the red-eye lamp lights, check the film-door seals and the frame-counter window, and inspect the battery compartment for alkaline corrosion — the most common fault on these.