Pen FT | Half Frame First Impressions
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2023
- Is a half frame the camera for me?
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I highly recommend the OM lens adapter for this, which I use with the 28-48 F4, the 50 F1.8, and the 28 F2.8. Olympus also made a Nikon adapter, but it's much more rare. Great stuff sir!
I find on some dodgey Chinese sites that you can modify your normal autofocus SLR to a half-frame SLR. What you need to do is to take 2 pieces of black paper and cover the back of the camera, leaving an area just for the size of half-frame. Then extend the film to an exact sprocket hole and load the camera. When you finish a roll, you count down 4 more sprocket holes and load again, that grants a pretty decent result.
I solved the travel issue with a CLA-ed Leica M4-P. The Voigtländer Color Skopar 35mm is a super-pocketable lens that works nicely on film (not so much on digital) and can be used for around 350-400 euros in mint condition. Yes, Leicas are expensive, but you get what you pay for (seriously, no fanboyism). And the value will be retained.
By the way, I shot tons of stuff in the 90ies and until 2009 with Arriflex 35mm cameras. Exciting to see that Olympus used for the Pen a rotary shutter. With Kodak Vision film stocks, the quality should be really good. But when you have experienced a range finder, you won't return to dimm SLR viewfinders (not saying that all SLR VFs are dimm!). G1 can be a great choice. It won't work for me because I like my cams to be mechanical.
Great educational channel!!!
11:50 take a closer look at the aperture ring on the lens - it can be rotated 180 degrees by pulling to the front and voila, you got your stop down marks..
That self timer clip was excellent! The viewfinder being dim and metering method is by far my biggest issue with this camera, but I found the camera lightmeter to be actually fairly accurate.
Nice to see your results!
I have the FV, got it for holidays (lenses are smaller, so I can take 3 primes), and for the rare occasions I want to shoot colour. FV has quite a bright view finder, I don't have any issues loading. I have the clip on meter (reads in F-stops), and it's not bad, good enough for double checking sunny 16 anyway. I don't think they ever made them with the split viewfinder focus screen.
I absolutely f'ing love this camera, but the main reason is that I've sort of fallen in love with the 38mm f1.8. It close focuses at 25cm, has a tiny focus throw, and is lovely and sharp.
The absolute worst thing about it is scanning the negs, or just having to wait to finish the roll (I've taken to cutting the roll out of the camera, and just devloping half a roll).
BTW, you can switch the lens's odd numeric aperture scale by simply pull on the ring and turn the aperture ring until the usual readings on the underside flip upwards. In other words, you got both options, the numbers which correspond to the light meter reading or the std. well known figures.
Hmmm,....my PEN FT has been cleaned and adjusted by no other than the man who had been working at the Olympus repair department for more than 30 years back in the days. The view finder is perfectly clean and the focussing is super easy, at least even for me w. my old eye sight. No auto focus and a dirty view finder as a negative??? Not the camera's fault imo. However the light metering is odd, like you said. Thanks for elaborating on how the odd light metering is meant to be used. Not much about it out there.
I don't know that I'd agree that the G1 actually has autofocus. They say it does, but I sold mine because blurry pictures suck. The Hexar AF was far better IMO, but that doesn't have interchangeable lenses. I sold that too. Now I've got the rather phallic-looking 2003-ish metal Mju-V in that slot. Why? It has a relatively sharp lens, viable autofocus, it's small, and it's weather sealed. I pair that with a Yashica GX as my travel duo. Cheers.
Thanks for honest review. I'll stick to my "ye oldy" Zenit XP and canonet 28
The video does a good job of summarizing the Pen-F camera. It's positives are small size and weight for its time. Being a half frame, it uses less film per shot, so is cheaper to use. Subsequent improvements in film and developers lessen the sting of squeezing good prints out of the tiny negatives. I bought a fairly complete FT system some decades ago, used it once and resold it. Negatives: (1) The viewfinder. The F was dim. The FT pulls 1/3 of that light off to the meter, so dimmer still. Hands down, the dimmest, hard to focus finder in SLR history. (2) Meter. Almost useless, for the reason he states. (3) Oly offered a catalog of very high quality lenses for the F system. However, many of them could never be actually acquired, They were very expensive as well. Finally, the idea of half frame format is a small, light, ready to go package. Toting a bunch of fixed focal lenses around with the Pen-F negates that idea quickly. Few of those system lenses are found today. No one else made lenses fitting the system. So, if you are compelled by Christ to acquire a Pen-F camera, look for the last model, the FV. It is an FT stripped of its meter. It was intended by Oly to be a budget model, but it has the best of the FT without the nuisance of its meter and dimmer finder. It is now far and away the most expensive one, if you can find it.
You might want to consider a Yashica Samurai, it is a half frame automatic with a built in zoom lens and flash.
The Canon/Bell & Howell Dial 35 2 falls somewhere in your requirements: spring-wound advance & coupled shutter priority w/ manual override. But no autofocus and also no interchangeable lenses unless you count close-up lenses or tele-side converters. Canon also made an ILC version of the Demi, I think, but that's almost certainly unobtanium.
My heavy-duty half-frame go to is the Pen FV w/ nikkor adapter. Not ideal as the aperture is fully manual but it suits my shooting style (and stable of glass!).
The Dial 35 was fairly common in the day, so is still available. It uses the old mercury battery, so a workaround will have to be used, as it is an auto-exposure system. It looks odd, but it works perfectly, The lens is very sharp, and the auto exposure system very accurate. The spring wound film advance system is a novelty, but it works well and can be fun for some sequence shots. The Demis are also excellent, but bigger and heavier, with faster lenses.
Why would you want everything to be automatic? May as well get a cheap point and shoot. Olympus mjuii would do. But this beautiful FT is from the 1960s. Can't think of any fully automatic cameras with interchangeable lenses and automatic film winder. I own the F and the FT, and with developing and processing cost's as high as they are, I'm glad to have potentially 72 shots per roll, and it allows me to gamble on shots that I maybe hesitant to take with only half the total of available shots. The F doesn't have a meter, so it can't be a complaint on that one 😂. Made me want to go shoot with mine again, so thank you 👍
I have got the og Pen F and yeah I agree it has its quirks. I think one advantage of the Pen F and the Pen FV vs the FT is that without the meter, the F and the FV supposedly have a bright viewfinder. A neat thing is you can buy adapters for it. I actually don't have any Pen F lenses but mounted a Pentax K mount lens on it lol. A few of the other Olympus Pen models have more automation if I remember correctly but then they don't let you change lenses sadly.
I can't vouch for the G1, but I have the G2 and it is extremely awesome (but expensive....). A shame that its all electronic construction makes it susceptible to a tragic expensive death on the whim of the universe but until then, it remains my absolute best 'family/event/everything camera'. The only reason I rarely use it is because I have too many other quirky cameras. If you do go for the g1, try to find one with the green label so you can use the 35mm and 21mm lenses. I haven't used the 35mm but the 21mm and 28mm are probably some of the best film era lenses of those focal lengths ever made from what I hear anyway.
I may or may not have a G1 green label atm.
Thanks, you saved me some cash, or did you? How much is a G1 these days😁?
too much
Canon 2000 with a 40mm pancake super light