Olympus Pen FT Half Frame First Photos
I recently purchased an Olympus Pen FT half frame camera. I've used a number of Olympus cameras over the years although I primarily use Sony digital cameras for my photojournalistic work.
This first roll (Ilford HP5) on the Pen FT, I was visiting friends in Colorado and during the whole shoot there was snow falling.
I've used the XA, which is small, rugged and is a rangefinder and and a number of the Olympus OM cameras. I have always been especially fond of Olympus optics and my oldest daughter and I still use lenses originally intended for the OM film cameras via adapters on our Sony digital cameras.
I routinely carry a camera wherever I go and enjoy street photography a lot. I switch between film and digital for my street photography and the idea of having a small camera that produces 72 exposures on a 36 exposure roll appealed greatly. My only complaint, and it's a minor complaint, is for horizontal (landscape) photos you need to rotate the camera into a vertical position, which in a non-half frame camera is holding the camera as if you are taking a portrait. It's something that takes a bit of getting used to.
The Olympus Pen F, Pen FT and Pen FV are very similar half-frame 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras with interchangeable lenses produced by Olympus of Japan between 1963-1966 (Pen F), 1966-1972 (Pen FT) and 1967-1970 (Pen FV).
The original Pen F has a double-stroke film advance and a distinctive logo rendered in a gothic font. The later Pen FT added a single-stroke film advance, and an uncoupled, integrated light meter, which uses a system of exposure numbers rather than f-stops. The exposure numbers were added to the aperture rings of later Pen F lenses; the rings could be pulled out and rotated to show conventional f- stops instead. A side-effect of the FT's light meter was a dimmer viewfinder. The Pen FV was essentially a Pen FT with the light meter deleted and the F's brighter viewfinder reinstated.
Half frame means that the camera uses an 18×24 mm vertical (portrait) format, producing twice the pictures on a roll of 35mm film as the regular 36×24 mm format. The smaller image format also allows for a smaller camera and lenses, making the Pen F system one of the smallest SLR systems ever made; the Pentax Auto 110 was smaller, but with a much more limited range of lenses and accessories, and smaller 110 film.
These cameras are somewhat exceptional since they used a rotary focal-plane shutter, rather than the two-curtain focal-plane shutter commonly used in other SLRs at that time. Since this one-piece shutter opens fully before it starts to close, it can synchronize to electronic flash at all shutter speeds.
Pen-F series cameras are occasionally modified to mount standard motion picture camera lenses for use as film test cameras with 35mm motion picture films. The Pen-F frame size is close to the 35mm motion picture Super 35 frame.
Note about transparency and black and white film scans: In the heyday of magazines using color transparencies, publishers used very high-end and expensive drum scanners to scan the slides. The results were amazing. For my scans I used a flat bed Epson scanner. Not ideal for reproduction since the images are slightly degraded during the scanning process and sharpening introduces some visual noise and accentuates the film grain. All the original photos were taken with a Canon F-1 with a variety of lenses on, usually, Kodachrome slide film or Ilford HP5 black and white film. As many were published and also marketed by a few well-known stock agencies, the originals were tack sharp, so please bear that in mind.
This first roll (Ilford HP5) on the Pen FT, I was visiting friends in Colorado and during the whole shoot there was snow falling.
I've used the XA, which is small, rugged and is a rangefinder and and a number of the Olympus OM cameras. I have always been especially fond of Olympus optics and my oldest daughter and I still use lenses originally intended for the OM film cameras via adapters on our Sony digital cameras.
I routinely carry a camera wherever I go and enjoy street photography a lot. I switch between film and digital for my street photography and the idea of having a small camera that produces 72 exposures on a 36 exposure roll appealed greatly. My only complaint, and it's a minor complaint, is for horizontal (landscape) photos you need to rotate the camera into a vertical position, which in a non-half frame camera is holding the camera as if you are taking a portrait. It's something that takes a bit of getting used to.
The Olympus Pen F, Pen FT and Pen FV are very similar half-frame 35 mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras with interchangeable lenses produced by Olympus of Japan between 1963-1966 (Pen F), 1966-1972 (Pen FT) and 1967-1970 (Pen FV).
The original Pen F has a double-stroke film advance and a distinctive logo rendered in a gothic font. The later Pen FT added a single-stroke film advance, and an uncoupled, integrated light meter, which uses a system of exposure numbers rather than f-stops. The exposure numbers were added to the aperture rings of later Pen F lenses; the rings could be pulled out and rotated to show conventional f- stops instead. A side-effect of the FT's light meter was a dimmer viewfinder. The Pen FV was essentially a Pen FT with the light meter deleted and the F's brighter viewfinder reinstated.
Half frame means that the camera uses an 18×24 mm vertical (portrait) format, producing twice the pictures on a roll of 35mm film as the regular 36×24 mm format. The smaller image format also allows for a smaller camera and lenses, making the Pen F system one of the smallest SLR systems ever made; the Pentax Auto 110 was smaller, but with a much more limited range of lenses and accessories, and smaller 110 film.
These cameras are somewhat exceptional since they used a rotary focal-plane shutter, rather than the two-curtain focal-plane shutter commonly used in other SLRs at that time. Since this one-piece shutter opens fully before it starts to close, it can synchronize to electronic flash at all shutter speeds.
Pen-F series cameras are occasionally modified to mount standard motion picture camera lenses for use as film test cameras with 35mm motion picture films. The Pen-F frame size is close to the 35mm motion picture Super 35 frame.
Note about transparency and black and white film scans: In the heyday of magazines using color transparencies, publishers used very high-end and expensive drum scanners to scan the slides. The results were amazing. For my scans I used a flat bed Epson scanner. Not ideal for reproduction since the images are slightly degraded during the scanning process and sharpening introduces some visual noise and accentuates the film grain. All the original photos were taken with a Canon F-1 with a variety of lenses on, usually, Kodachrome slide film or Ilford HP5 black and white film. As many were published and also marketed by a few well-known stock agencies, the originals were tack sharp, so please bear that in mind.
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