Olympus Pen Fs ?

[ruben]

...
Since it's all about photos, here is an example shot using the 100mm lens.

Best,
Roland.

Hi Roland,
EXTRAORDINARY PIC both about the camera/lens as well as the photographer !!!

Kudos for Maitani !
Cheers,
Ruben

PS: In my opinion and taste, the OM4s and OM4Tis, compared to an OM1, and even an OM2, have a shitty noise, perhaps not so much louder but definitely more "metallical shitty" (with apologies to the moderator).

 

[julianphotoart]

To my ear, the sound level of the Pen F is about the same as my Bessa R2.

I agree. The sounds are different, but about the same volume. IMO noticable but certainly less than a full-blown 35.

The thing about my Pen F is I've never even put film through it. It's just such a neat amazing little camera I fool around with it as-is. For something built so long ago that was never meant to last all these years, it does pretty well. Interesting shutter too.

Eugene Smith used a Pen F for awhile. I once saw a magazine ad for the Pen F with a shot of him using the camera.

 

[Jocko]

Ruben! How could you!?

Look at your avatar - isn't she lovely? Can't you imagine how she feels, warm and slick, ready at a fingers twitch to meet your every need? Weren't you once proud to take her out and show her off? And now? She sadly sits at home, silently waiting with your 8 tiny Smenas!

How could you even look at another camera?! You, you Love-Rat!

I'm shocked! 😀

Ian

 

[Doug]

I like the Pen F series; they're cute. They're similar in size to an M-Leica, louder, and with half the film area. The system has entered into the collector realm, so some lenses and accessories are going for inflated prices. Wide angle lenses are either slow, rare, or both. There's only a 20 f/3.5 and 25mm in f/4 and f/2.8. The standard 38mm f/1.8 is one of the sharpest of the lineup, and the 20 is also great.

The most common model is the FT, with quite an awkward metering system, and requires the banned mercury battery. Beware of some that have been in 'scientific use' as there are some varieties that have circular non-focusing viewfinder fields. The film wind and shutter-cocking mechanism requires some right-angle gears... my camera tech tells me he thinks it is a crude design prone to trouble and pretty well stuck with a gritty feel. I have one body that gives inconsistently wide spacing between frames.

With all the disadvantages, they're still very attractive little cameras and can produce impressive results with modern films. Note too the rotary focal-plane shutter synchs flash at all speeds. I have a Pentax M42 lens adaptor for mine, but of course the lenses are used in pre-set diaphragm mode.

These three shots use, in order, 40mm f/1.4, 38mm f/1.8, and 20mm f/3.5

 

[ruben]

Ruben! How could you!?

Look at your avatar - isn't she lovely? Can't you imagine how she feels, warm and slick, ready at a fingers twitch to meet your every need? Weren't you once proud to take her out and show her off? And now? She sadly sits at home, silently waiting with your 8 tiny Smenas!

How could you even look at another camera?! You, you Love-Rat!

I'm shocked! 😀

Ian

No Ian, you don't understand, I am making crazy some friends, ferider included and he able to detail, in order not to move away from my Kiev setup... But in order to do it lawfully I have to compare and look for the other alternatives. Soon a big surprise will come up regarding my Kievs.

Cheers,
Ruben

So far no camera system setup under the thousand bucks can compete in conspicuity with our Kievs. But this belongs to a future posting.

Cheers

 

[ruben]

....I have a Pentax M42 lens adaptor for mine, but of course the lenses are used in pre-set diaphragm mode.

I do not understand, could you explain ?

 

[ruben]

...So now that you are considering manual meter cameras, maybe it's time
to reconsider an M6 :angel: An M6 with CV 28/1.9 is truly complementary
to an OM4 😉

Best,

Roland.

This for example ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/LEICA-M6-CLASSI...QcategoryZ30030QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Jocko]

No, you don't understand

That's what I told my FEDs about the Minolta SRT! It was only a business trip and the hotel made a mistake about the rooms!

Ruben , between you and me, I too have looked longingly upon a Pen F! They are gorgeous!

Cheers, Ian

 

[ruben]

Ruben , between you and me, I too have looked longingly upon a Pen F! They are gorgeous!

Cheers, Ian

Georgeous georgeous, but if noisy as described no aditional big deal for me out of the all round synch.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Noisy? I've handled one, and I didn't think it was noisy. Silent it's not, but it isn't noisy either.

 

[ruben]

Hi Gabriel, it seems I will have to purchase one of those. But I have a better economic solution. Since I am an OM owner, first I will wait to buy the adaptor for OM lenses to Pen bodies. Then perhaps. At any rate, it seens this specific adaptor is not abundant at ebay.
Saludos,
Ruben

Ps: que es ese asunto de las maletas ?

 

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Doug
....I have a Pentax M42 lens adaptor for mine, but of course the lenses are used in pre-set diaphragm mode.

I do not understand, could you explain ?

The Pen F has a mechanism that actuates the diaphagm for Pen F lenses, so that you focus with the lens wide open for brighter viewing and more focusing ease, and when the shutter release is pressed, just before the shutter actuates the mechanism stops the lens down to the opening set on the lens aperture ring. This automatic diaphragm control is typical for modern SLR cameras of course, and Pentax does the same.

But the Pen F and Pentax M42 mechanisms are not the same, not compatible. And the adaptor that allows the M42 lens to fit the Pen F body doesn't "translate" that difference. So, no automatic diaphragm control. The lens diaphragm must be operated separately before pressing the shutter button. Fortunately, most M42 lenses have a manual/auto switch on the lens. So you can switch to Auto, for wide-open viewing and focusing, then slide the switch to Manual to stop it down to the taking aperture before pressing the shutter release. In this way, it's called "pre-set" because you had set the aperture previously, then operated a simple control to make it go to that set aperture as needed.

Before full-automatic diaphragms were nearly universal, there was semi-auto, where the lens would stop down automatically with the shutter release, but had to be "re-cocked" to the full open position afterward. And more primitive than that was a type called Pre-Set that had two aperture rings, one of which moved smoothly and without clicks between wide open and the aperture set on the other ring. This made it easy to stop the lens down to that pre-set aperture before releasing the shutter. Yet more primitive even than that (for SLR use) was the "manual" aperture lens with no automatic mechanism and only the single aperture ring, just like any Leica or Voigtlander rangefinder lens.

I'm sure you already know and understand most of the above, just mentioned in the interests of clarity in answer to your question!

The essentially pre-set mode of use is a typical drawback of adapting "foreign" lenses to a camera. It's an extra step that one must remember, and if forgotten is likely to result in overexposure due to shooting wide open when not intending to. I am so error-prone in this that I often will just set the lens to a fairly wide aperture and leave it there, accepting slightly dimmer viewfinder and poorer focusing.