So... is it a Pen F or Pen FT?

[historicist]

On the topic of pulling the sperture ring out, and then turning it all the way round to get f stop rather than fv numbers, it does indeed work but then actual aperture is actually a lot smaller than it says on the ring - f2 looks like f16, so in practice it isn't usable, which is a real shame.

BTW, Leica to Pen adaptors were made by Olympus, but didn't give infinity focus. And on another tangent, Nikon/Canon FD/etc. to Pen adaptors are fairly widely available in Japan for about 120,000 yen, about 60 English pounds when I was there. I got a Nikon one which is great fun but the lenses are so much bigger than the pen lenses that it totally ruins the ergonomics of the camera - I use mine for tripod mounted macro stuff but off a tripod it's a real pain.

 

[Doug]

On the topic of pulling the sperture ring out, and then turning it all the way round to get f stop rather than fv numbers, it does indeed work but then actual aperture is actually a lot smaller than it says on the ring - f2 looks like f16, so in practice it isn't usable, which is a real shame.

I have not seen this occur with my FT lenses... It is not normal behavior. Perhaps moving the ring around a bit to make sure it's seated right will do it, or perhaps there's something gummed up in the lens that needs cleaning and lube. The aperture ring is pulled forward then rotated to switch modes, but the ring has to seat back rearward in its proper position for it to work correctly.

The lens adapters broaden the usage range of the camera, and the tradeoff is the size of the lenses and the lack of diaphragm automation. Kind of inconvenient to use, agreed, but you get the aditional flexibility too.