Opinions solicited - Olympus PEN F

If in good condition they are nice shooters. Well built and compact, beautifully designed. The Pen F has a brighter viewfinder (no meter) than the Pen FT (metered). With modern emulsions the half frame negatives can be easily printed up to 8x10. I found the shutter a bit louder than my OM1n's.
 
I have several, FTs, and various fixed lens models, EE, EE-S2, etc. I absolutely love them. The Fs are approximately the same size as a Leica M and the lenses are outstanding. As Micek said, well built, compact, beautifully designed, and great shooters.
 
Ditto to what's already been said.

They're great little cameras. I like the meterless F & FV, as they have the brighter VFs as micek noted. The FV is rarer & more expensive than the F, but is supposed to have a better shutter (1/500th on my F is hit-or-miss, mostly miss). If you want a respected mechanic's view, you might want to ping John Hermanson of Camtech Photo Services (omtech(at)erols.com).

Some people look down on the lenses, but they seem to be pretty good to me & fully comparable to other high-quality 1960s lenses (e.g., Canon RF, etc.).
 
I have an FT and it is a little disconcerting to have 72 negatives on a roll and to try and pick out the ones you want to enlarge or just to enlarge all of them. Somehow a 24 exposure roll forces one to be more discriminating in making exposures.

-Paul
 
If you have the chance to pick one up, do so. I have some film from a Canon Demi sitting at Wal-Mart (ugh, I know) right now that I had scanned. Had to test it out.
 
It may be just the right format for getting the negatives scanned without making prints. You get about 72-76 scanned images from which you can pick and choose which image you want to have printed. I have the FT and like it very much. I only have two lenses for it though;
 
I had an F for a while and liked it. It did take forever to get through 72 frames, but that's good for encouraging bracketing and just taking lots of shots. I tried to think in terms of "photo pairs" too, in other words, taking two shots of someone in rapid succession and looking for nice resonance between the two photos. That's kind of fun. I also found it easy to work with half frame at my local Eckerd's...they scanned them two at a time and printed them two side by side. Not so tough.
 
My camera repair guy, who has worked on my two FTs and one FV, says the feel of the film wind will never be as smooth as it should be due to the transport design, where he thinks they made some cheap decisions. One issue is that the rotary shutter's axis is horizontal (fore and aft) so there's a right-angle gear train needed to cock it. I've had various troubles with all three and the FV has a chronic but variable problem with wide frame spacing. The FT with the frame counter problem had other internal problems too, solved by a major transplant of innards from a donor FT that had an ugly exterior. Good parts are getting hard to find for these little sweeties!
 
It's pretty amazing what you can do in half-frame given today's films. Very little quality difference between it and regular 35mm when I scanned shots from my Samurai on my flatbed... I'm sure I can do even better now that I have a film scanner.
 
The small size of the Pen F system was extraordinary when it was originally introduced in 1963. The Pro model was just a black FT with the small pancake 35/2.8. A motordrive prototype was shown, but never marketed.

it is still a bit surprising this was the only system interchangeable lens 35mm half frame designed as a half frame -- not just a full frame with a half frame film gate.

Don't forget how adaptable the system is to other 35mm SLR lenses. Olympus offered adapters for Nikon F, Pentax 42, Exakta, and Olympus OM lenses.

an old CQ page at http://cameraquest.com/olypenf.htm will eventually be updated with lots of new pics. I currently seeking the nice examples of the 70/2 and the 400/6.3.


I hope to offer authorized reprints of Peter Dechert's excellent Pen F booklet. No final decision from Peter yet.

today the Pen F system prices are surprizingly holding their own in this digital world -- so there seems to be more than a fair share of Oly Pen F / FT / FT users and collectors.

the Gene Smith Olympus Pen F ad is my favorite camera/photog ad of all time.

Stephen
 
I had several Pens , fixed lens models, EE, S Models I loved them also. I wish I still had them, but that was years ago.

Leo
 
I have a Pen F that was given to me along with a 38/1.8 and a 70/2 lens. Everything is in great shape. It turns that the Pen F is a medical model and has a focusing screen with a cross hair and a round mask. This was designed to be used with microscopes and medical endoscopes (for peering into places we would not want peered into). I haven't tried run any film through it yet. I may see about having the mask removed as this is a camera that I have lusted after for a long time. I could have bought one new when they were still available, but for some reason decided not to. When I was in the Air Force, I new a fellow that used a Pen F for making film strips ... anyone remember those?
 
Biomed, I understand there were several variations of the F series for different medical and other scientific use. My FV was one such, but has a normal focusing screen. Some have the crosshairs and round mask you mention, and from what I've read these have a clear screen with no frosted focusing area. I also hear that Pen F screens are not interchangeable, so I don't know if the mask is removable either. I'd like to hear your experiences running a short test roll through that camera...
 
I am greatly overwhelmed by the plethora of kind replies, advice and suggestions from RFF members - in response to my request re Olympus PEN F

Please accept my sincere thanks

Joseph Low / Singapore
 
Stephen: Thanks for the memory of the Gene Smith/Pen ad; wow, I'd forgotten about that, but it was a beautiful piece of work.
 
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