Pen FT manufacturing date

[Obertelli]

Just wondering if anyone can tell me how old my Pen FT is?

The serial number is 153772.

Pushing my luck a little, details regarding my lenses would be appreciated as well; all are for the Pen FT with the aperture value scales on them as well as the regular f stops by pulling out the aperture rings and giving them a half turn:-

40mm f1.4, S/N 142596
50-90mm f3.5, S/N 215547
100mm f3.5, S/N 108665

I love the camera and use it in preference to almost anything else now that I've abandoned the digital money-pits, but it would be great just to know a bit more about my kit.

In case anyone's interested I shoot transparencies and scan the results at home via my trusty Epson 4870, and print using my HP Photosmart 7960 using HP Premium Plus or Premium Matte with genuine HP inks. The results are superb and it produces far better monochrome prints than I ever achieved in a darkroom, and the colour prints are as good as makes no real difference to any regular commercial lab I've used. Viewing the slides directly in a good viewer though still blows any kind of reflected light method completely out of the water 😀

Rob

 

[thirteen]

For the camera - serial # 153772 - made in 1967 (serial #'s 120,000 to 190,000). 2nd year of production for the FT.

 

[richardvanle]

I've got a beater Pen FT and 38/1.8 lens. Great little combo. My only pet peeve is that I wish the viewfinder were a bit brighter.

 

[thirteen]

Here is the site:
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Olympus_PenF.html

The site is in German. The table giving serial numbers and production totals for the Pen F, FT and FV is halfway down. It gives serial #'s by year and production totals per camera.
At the bottom of the page there is a link to all the lenses.

 

[Obertelli]

Thanks, thirteen, I thought it may be a '67 after seeing another example online with a S/N in the same ball-park from that year. Mine is in such fantastic condition though that I had my doubts.

 

[Doug]

Useful page I hadn't seen before, thirteen, thanks. My two FT bodies are 1967 and 1970, while the FV is 1969... It appears they duplicated serial number ranges for the three models, so that one might conceivably have a matched set of all three with the same serial number...

 

[Rollmo]

Just checked my FV and it is 130032...so I am guessing 1972.

Is that right? Maybe John H. can confirm.

 

[thirteen]

My understanding from various sources is that the FV was produced only from 1967 to 1970 - maybe Rollmo's was a late 1970 product. Only FT's went to 1972.

 

[Cale Arthur]

My FV is 132713.. i'm guessing that extra parts were made that were never assembled into complete bodies? I'd be interested to find out the story either way.

 

[Obertelli]

Camerapedia claims that there were about 45000 FV's manufactured; the table at the link thirteen kindly provided shows just 25000.

Based upon production runs which were of 5000 units per year with the exception of 1968 (10k) it seems reasonable to assume that they were being made alongside the FT right up until 1972.

 

[DanOnRoute66]

Useful page I hadn't seen before, thirteen, thanks. My two FT bodies are 1967 and 1970, while the FV is 1969... It appears they duplicated serial number ranges for the three models, so that one might conceivably have a matched set of all three with the same serial number...

Oh, boy, a new mania sets in .... 😉