Anyone got/shot an Olympus Pen FT?

[David Mitchell]

Hi all,

I have been looking at half frame cameras as I like the fact that you can have up to 72 frames on a normal 36 exposure roll - means I can just point and shoot rather than worrying about 'I only have 3 shots left'.

I had a look at the Pen and the Pen EE, then saw the Pen F and the Pen FT, they are half frame SLRs, the FT having a TTL meter.

Saw this thread on the rangefinder forum.

Olympus Pen FT - WOW!!!!! - Rangefinderforum.com

I was thinking that the half frame would be useful but then I saw someone had used it as a panoramic camera which I found even more interesting:

Just wondering if anyone here has used a a Pen F or FT, they aren't cheap to buy (around £150 body only)but I am tempted to save up for one and get one at some point. They are are bit like the Rollei 35 in the fact that they are tiny but aren't lacking in quality or accuracy.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

That's a neat idea doing the panoramas that way

 

[David Mitchell]

Ironically using up more frames of film that you would have done if shooting with a full frame camera lol most half frames aren't SLRs, the Pen F and FT are which is quite neat - I guess its like a DX equivilent of a film camera.

 

[Hamish Gill]

If you want a half frame the chaika is nice for a lot less money (if you can find one with a lens)
agat 18k for mega cheap ... Lot of fun though!
maybe worth having a go with one before you spend the mega money on a ft ... I find all the frames annoying. I just end up being too snap happy then not being happy with the shots ... Like I am with a digital.
Zeiss Taxona is a nice half way house, 24x24mm square frames ... Gets you 48 shots on a roll of 36 (from memory) ... And if you like that idea and want interchangeable lenses you could always save up for a robot royal (make me "well jel" tht would )

 

[David Mitchell]

I am going to try and get a Universal Mercury II half frame camera, my collection has the theme of unusual cameras/functions, its a half frame and its got a massive rotary shutter which is why it has that top semi circle lol

I have seen some of the Pen EE cameras, they seem ok but it doesn't look as interesting as other cameras.

That agat 18k looks interesting, there is also the Afga Parat, also some Ricoh half frames, then you have those wacky Yashica samurai cameras lol

With regards to the Robot royal, I can either buy one of those...or get 3 Fuji X100s lol

Will look at something cheaper, tempted by that Agat 18K though, looks rather funky

 

[Larry Bolch]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone here has used a a Pen F or FT, they aren't cheap to buy (around £150 body only)but I am tempted to save up for one and get one at some point. They are are bit like the Rollei 35 in the fact that they are tiny but aren't lacking in quality or accuracy.

Yes, I bought one new and used it a lot. I also had the 100mm lens for it, which was an impressive lens which got stolen. I always meant to replace it. Back then, it was much like the role my present X-Pro1 plays—a small, light and portable camera with interchangeable lenses. Well made, with quality glass, but greatly suffering from small image area. I admit my bias, I always shot with the largest format that would achieve the goal of the assignment—a lot of medium format.

The Pen F was almost totally for personal work. I shot only one assignment with it. I was assigned to photograph headshots of a county high school football team—no more than 36 shots. The dingbat coach insisted that I photograph every boy in high school, so no one would feel left out. There were hundreds, and the Pen F doubled the amount of shots I could do with the film I had in stock. I carried an adequate supply of film at all times, but had no way of anticipating a shoot of this size. It was a long drive from the office, and no way to practically return with more film, so I shot the Pen F. I put each roll into the enlarger and made 16×20 enlarged "contact sheets". The sports editor was all too experienced in the eccentricities of high-school coaches, but this set the record. He said some highly appropriate words and none of the pictures were ever used.

 

[David Mitchell]

Thanks for your experiance Larry you always seem to have experiance of loads of interesting things which is awesome I remember when I was first looking around at the Pen EE and thought...wait that film counter goes up to 72 lol I am tempted to give half frame a go as although there is less image i'm not going to be blowing them up to A3, will probably just be scanned and simply used digitally. Its more of a fun format as I can take loads more frames for the same fixed cost of development, each one of the cameras I currently have has an odd feature about them be it a classic design, specific format, shutter type, material used etc I guess a half frame was the cheap point and shoot of the film world, it produces lots of basic images simply and economically. I was eyeing up an Agat 18 on ebay, there are a few on there at the moment but i'm not really into toy/lomo cameras, looking at getting a Yashica Samurai as thats like no other camera I own lol.

I think a will look into getting a Pen F or FT at some point as its kind of like the final development of half frame, a bit like how I have a box brownie and a Nikon FM2n, complete opposite ends of the spectrum in technology, one takes a higher resolution image and is autoexposure, the other is the Nikon

A half frame camera would also be a good learning tool for both exposure and composition, im interested to see how the format can be pushed outside of how it was designed as well - much like those panoramic half frames.