Some thoughts around the Olympus Pen EE-3

I just had a good read of this nice little blog entry starring the lovely Olympus Trip 35 a couple of days ago, and thought I'd just as well throw in a few thoughts about the tiny little sister of the Trip 35, in other words; Meet the wee little Pen EE-3.

A lovely little thing it is with no problems fitting inside the palm of even a smallish hand.

It's actually one of very few film cameras I have bought at a physical store in my life, as this little gem and also my first SLR was payed for over a counter. A Nikon F-401 was bought brand new some time in the mid to late 80's, and the Pen EE-3 was bought only two or three years ago well used but very far from worn out, from a shop dealing with second hand cameras in Arundel, South Downs in West Sussex over in England during "the almost never ending road trip" with the old LR Defender driving from Norway all the way over to England via France you know, then all over the hills and far away, before heading back home the opposite way. I think the shop where it was bought is simply called Arundel Photographica, but I'm not 100% sure. 

Anyway, about the camera:
You may think the Trip 35 is as simple as they ever came out of the Olympus factory back in the days when these were made? If so, please take a tiny step back and have a closer look at the Pen EE-3. There is absolutely nothing there that needs to be adjusted as long as you manage to have your film loaded and the ASA adjusted to the right level (between 25 and 400). There's no focus or anything else to be bothered about, besides you got the option to override the fully automatic shutter/aperture combination to adjust the aperture manually if needed or if you just feel for it. 
That's it, actually. Everything else is nothing to think about. No focusing or no anything else. A true point and shoot with an optional manual aperture setting. How cool is that?

A stealthy little camera even though it's got the classic chrome appearance from back in the days. It's not shiny though, and there are no bells and whistles whatsoever inside this thing. 

The Pen EE series was introduced in 1961, and seem to have ended it's days around 1983 or thereabout. The EE-3 model discussed here apparently was on the market from 1973 to 1983 according to Wikipedia. 
We are as you know by now looking at a half frame, fixed lens, fixed focus, fully automatic selenium cell metered viewfinder camera. It doesn't get much better than that for a small camera, I'd say.
The fact it's "only" a half frame camera must be as good a reason as any to stay away from it you may think, and if you don't at the same time see all the good reasons for actually getting one you are of course right. Half frame is nothing for serious photography, that's absolutely very well observed, but then again photography can be so much more and there is absolutely no reason to be that serious all the time. Grab a tiny camera, throw in a roll of film and go have some serious fun while snapping all the things you normally would just leave be.

To me the small EE-3 is one of them perfect pocket film cameras when traveling light. It's tiny, it's built into a good old metal chassis, it gives you nice exposures without having to give it a second thought, it's pretty much invisible and it actually also have a quite good lens attached to it from the factory. No, it's probably not the most expensive construction ever made out of glass and a few plastic rings, but it does the job in a nice way. We are talking about nothing less than a 28mm f/3.5 Zuiko lens, which should be equal to something like a 40mm on a standard full frame 135 camera. So that's nice enough data for the lens, me thinks. I would of course like it to have one more stop available, but then again you can rarely have everything you want. 

The automatic exposure function on the camera is as simple as it is genius actually. There's supposed to be two different shutter speeds (1/125s and about 1/30s) built into the thing. The aperture sets itself to the right size according to available light measured by the selenium cell as you push the release button down towards the point of trigging the shutter. If the camera finds there's not enough light to get a decent shot, a physical "red flag" will show up inside the viewfinder, and the shutter will be locked. This can however be manually overridden if you wish, by using the manual settings on the ASA ring on the lens. Another cool thing is that this way you can also measure light in one spot by pressing the shutter halfways down to lock the aperture and the shutter time (AE lock), then move the camera to compose your picture before you press the button fully down to take your picture. It works like a breeze. 

Topside view. Film counter, the rewind crank and even a hot shoe in addition to the obvious release button. You also got a good view of the only adjustment possible to make, the ISO ring on the lens. 

Another quite cool thing about half frame cameras is of course the fact that you can squeeze a lot of tiny snaps out of one single 36 exp. roll of film a bit dependant on who actually made the film (as some like to throw in a couple of shots extra just for the heck of it). I think 76 or 77 pictures is my personal best using a roll of Fomapan some time ago. 
The huge backside of the half frame format is of course grain which is the obvious limit and sometimes a showstopper when putting the negatives inside a scanner or even the enlarger in the darkroom. You will soon discover that there is a limit on the size of paper you need to pull out of the stack to get a decent paper copy. On the other hand this is not the camera you would bring along if your mission is to make serious prints for huge walls with pin sharp details and such. We got other cameras for those pictures, we film wasters. 
Another no-brainer and a real kick in the butts to go grab one would be the price. My camera bought over the counter down in Arundel over in England cost me less than a roll of colour negative film. Not that I buy too many rolls of colour negative film, but that's a story for some another day. I payed nine pounds for it, and it works like a dream. 
Something of real value when buying used equipment would be the lack of plastic you would have to hack your way through to start using what's inside. It's extremely annoying, and the plastic seems to end up in the ocean anyway, so better avoid it if possible. I simply payed my nine bucks, slipped it inside my pocket and went out on the street before putting a film inside and started snapping away.

This is a camera for all those fun pictures, and not exactly for any serious business as I have mentioned well enough now. I would say it's even good enough for a trip into town to do some fun street snapping for those of you who like to play with that sort of photography. It's a lot stealthier than any more modern camera in need of batteries. The shutter is dead quiet and a roll of film goes a long way. There is no annoying sound as there is no motor installed to wind the film forward or backwards either. OK, the manual winding wheel do have a tiny bit of annoying sound if you're sitting inside a very quiet place, but out and about in the field no one is going to hear it or take notice. Even the lens should be of perfect length for street work I would think.
The negatives are only half the size of a standard 135 camera for sure, but what you loose in size you get back in mood and originality and loads of fun. And a bit of grain, yes.

You will not find anything you didn't expect when you turn it around to have a closer look at the bottom plate. There's the ever present release button for the winding mechanism, and the threaded hole to be able to attach it to a tripod. Not that you ever will do that, but they threw it in for the same price anyway. In my case you also have the film reminder. Quite useful if you load it up and put it on a shelf for a while. There's about 72 snaps on a roll you know...

There are even more good things to be said about the little Olympus Pen EE-3. There will always be room left somewhere to bring it along no matter where you go. If you're out shooting with other cameras there will always be a tiny bit of room left for this little thing to make you able to snap up a few frames on some location just for fun, or if you're going places where you first thought you would be better off without any camera at all, it's also the perfect one to simply slip inside a pocket before you run out the doors. 
Due to frame size and the forever on-going discussions and mentioning of grain out there on the forums these days, you might want to load this camera with quite low ISO film around the 100 mark. Personally I'm a bit more relaxed about all the fuzz and would just as often throw inside an ISO 400 film for that matter. I find 400 ISO to suit me better in the long run, as the light up in the northern latitudes can be a bit dull at certain times of year. 

So if you think you have all the cameras you ever needed and there's nothing more to wish for, you might have a go with the oh so lovely little EE-3 (or any other EE for that matter...) from Olympus. They are cool as heck, cheap as chips and also come with a huge load of fun factor already built into them. Something like 17 millions were made, so there should still be a few around ready for grabs. 
And if you still feel you got enough cameras, you may have a son or daughter wanting to try something simple just to start off somewhere? The Pen EE-3 would be perfect for that as well.

All pictures of camera above was shot out here at sea this afternoon using an old iPhone. 
All example snaps below has been taken with the above camera. 
My film scans sucks as usual, but that's what you get from me. You should know that by now anyway. 

Oh yes, we were there! In the midst among the crowds, fighting to get a glimpse of the pile of stone at the end of a bridge. OK, it's a lovely old pile I admit. I might pass again some other time, but at a different time of year. 

I got absolutely no idea where this might be. It's in Scotland for sure, maybe somewhere out on the Isle of Skye, but could be anywhere over there I'd say.

I'm pretty sure this is somewhere on the east coast of Scotland. Somewhere in Aberdeenshire if my memory serves me just a tiny bit...?!

Sea cave, east coast of Scotland

Outside a sea cave, east coast of Scotland