Who likes Olympus Pen F half frame SLRs?

[dourbalistar]

Olympus Pen-F, 60mm/f1.5, XP2 @200, Diafine:

I knew the Olympus Zuiko lenses were excellent, but the sharpness and focus fall off on this is incredible, even more so on half-frame. Must control GAS... 😀

 

[chrism]

Had a delightful chat with René at Service Camera Pro in Québec City, around one third in English, one third in French, and one third in Franglais. He will be happy to make the Pen-FV work using donor parts if needed from the Pen-FT. What a nice man! Told me if I need any Hasselblad repairs he is factory-trained but will retire in a couple of years. So $18CAD to Canada Post and we'll see what happens.

 

[DMA1965]

I started with a Pen FV with a 38mm F1.8 lens 2 years ago and now have 5 different Pen F cameras in various versions, plus several lenses and many adapters. Here is a triptych I took at Yosemite with my Pen F (Gothic) and the 24mm f2.8 Zuiko. I took this on Kodak Technical Pan film.

 

[Pál_K]

…I took this on Kodak Technical Pan film.

Nice! Good tonality. Did you develop it in Technodol using that elaborate agitation method Kodak suggests? I used to use Tech Pan in medium format, but would let a lab do the developing and printing. A great film we’ve lost.

 

[chrism]

That is indeed a lovely triptych. I'm not one for gritty, grainy pictures, so I'm beginning to see there may be a compromise between slower films that work well with tiny negatives, and wanting the speed that a tiny lightweight camera deserves if it is to be used as it ought (not on a tripod!)

 

[zuiko85]

That is indeed a lovely triptych. I'm not one for gritty, grainy pictures, so I'm beginning to see there may be a compromise between slower films that work well with tiny negatives, and wanting the speed that a tiny lightweight camera deserves if it is to be used as it ought (not on a tripod!)

But…..even so, keep a tripod handy. Might not be walking around with it dangling from a strap, but it’s not too far to retrieve. With the Pen F my feelings about tripod use are the same as with the 50-90mm f3.5 zoom, a constant aperture big and heavy lens compared to my Pen Zuiko fixed primes. It’s not in a walk about kit, but still handy when I need to fill the focal length gap between 38mm and 100mm. Sure, I’d love to have the 70mm f2 Zuuiko but sure ain’t going to find one for the $40 paid for the ‘50-90 zoom. (Usual signs of wear but works fine, and btw best outdoors with a 49mm telephoto lens hood to protect that front element and cut down on flare.)

 

[chrism]

Same film, 42mm/f1.2:

 

[Ricoh]

 

[Godfrey]

There's a lovely feel to those two images, Ricoh. Not sure if they make a stronger impression as a diptych.

 

[Ricoh]

There's a lovely feel to those two images, Ricoh. Not sure if they make a stronger impression as a diptych.

Thanks Godfrey. I take your point about the choice for a diptych, tending to agree.

 

[DMA1965]

Nice! Good tonality. Did you develop it in Technodol using that elaborate agitation method Kodak suggests? I used to use Tech Pan in medium format, but would let a lab do the developing and printing. A great film we’ve lost.

I use Technidol and gently do 4 inversions per minute.

 

[chrism]

Half-frame XP2 Super, 60/1.5:

 

[Ricoh]

Half-frame XP2 Super, 60/1.5:

Your lovely wife, is she a willing volunteer? Mine would stop me dead, “don’t even try”!

PS I’m liking the shallow dof on the 60mm/f1.5

 

[chrism]

I got told this morning that "it's not alright to take my photo without permission" so the woke world has entered this household. Look for photos of inanimate objects in future. If only I were allowed to leave the house, but Mrs-I-have-to-give-permission is the strongest gatekeeper that prevents me and my bone marrow transplant leaving the house. Now up to 23 months of indoor and driveway photography.

 

[chrism]

Perhaps it's time to say something about where this half-frame nonsense is going. I have gone from an old Pen-FT to an even older Pen-F, and now the FT is a donor body for parts for a Pen-FV. Craziness, indeed. My half-frame lenses began in the 1970's with a 38mm/f1.8 and a 150mm/f4, but have since grown to a 25mm/f4, 20mm/f3.5, 42mm/f1.2, 60mm/f1.5 and a 50-90mm/f3.5 zoom. Generally, I'm happy with any camera that has the FF 35mm equivalents of a 28mm. a 50mm and a short portrait telephoto 70-90mm. The last time I spent some years with a meterless, all mechanical camera with 28/50/90 lenses it was a Leica M2. (OK, there were and are still some MF and LF cameras that I have that meet those criteria!) This one excites me a bit more, as I am naturally an SLR-viewfinder person, rather than a rangefinder person. Can't help that, it's something to do with brain wiring and not open to argument. But this little camera is smaller, lighter and quieter than the M2. And, yes, the negatives are half the size, so half the quality. (Also half the price, but I know none of you care about that.) With grainless XP2 Super, I don't think that matters so much, and while I really get off on setting up, planning and executing a high-quality MF or LF photo, I haven't had quite so much fun in ages when it comes to carelessly shooting whatever is in front of me with film.
No doubt ii is not in my interest to make others want to buy into this old system, but it's hard not to share the fun. Give it a try if you fancy it.

 

[Ricoh]

I read somewhere that Yoshihisa Maitani designed the Pen F (FT and FV) as an antidote to the increasing price of film in the 1960s. Would you believe it! Now today it has relevance once again with the ever increasing cost of film. But as mentioned earlier, it comes with a different cost - a roll of 135x36 takes ages to complete, hence many users rolling bespoke shorter lengths.
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Olympus_Pen_F

 

[chrism]

Well I prefer to load 12-frame (full frame that is) cassettes of bulk 35mm film.12 frames is great for a day out with a 35mm camera, and 24 frames is something I can cope with when using half-frame. I find myself unhappy having to expose 36 frames before developing, and 72 is beyond my imagination.

Evidently, I never learned the machine gun techniques of 8 frames per second of the digital types.

 

[Franko]

I bought a Pen D3 back in the summer, more out of curiosity and desire to try something new. Shipping cost almost as much as I paid for it from a Japanese seller. His description was spot on - clean lens, good shutter but dead meter. That took fifteen minutes to fix (broken wire in the battery compartment from corrosion) and I also cleaned a little fog out of the finder. My expectations were not overly optimistic about sharpness and contrast - until I looked at a test roll of TMax 100 with my 8x loupe. Scans and a quick 8x11 print confirmed that the film choice will be most of the deciding factor for perceived sharpness, not the lens. The D3 has become my everyday carry. I bought an orange filter and hood and with short cable release, my gadget bag fits in a pocket too. That would be the end of story if you guys had not waved the GAS flag in this thread. Back in the day, I used to look at new Pen Fs in camera stores with some longing but the call of Nikon was too strong. Today, I'm spending more and more time in the Pen F ads on Ebay.

 

[chrism]

Just missed the focus on this one. Have to use glasses. I don't think Olympus ever made corrective diopters for the Pen F.

 

[Pál_K]

Somehow, using half-frame invokes a different approach.

Usually it takes me a while to finish 24 or 36 exposures in 35mm format unless I’m on a particular self-appointed “assignment. For example, on several occasions last year and this year I went to a park in SW Washington with hiking trails, lakes, streams, and waterfalls. It’s very popular, with hikers, runners, bicyclists, and boaters. There are actually over six miles of trails in the park. On each hike I took a different SRT-101 and lens, making about 120 photos over the course of four days and four hikes. Normally, in comparison, I don’t make that many photos during a month.

In my own neighborhood, however, I’ve photographed so much of it in the last 21 years that I no longer “see” any photos to make when I’m walking around. Yet, when I first went for a neighborhood walk with my Pen FT, somehow the camera’s natural vertical orientation caused me to see everything differently. Instead of making the one or two photos I’d expected that day, I made 48 photos (two rolls). During my 1-mile circuit of the neighborhood, I was seeing photographic opportunities everywhere that I’d never seen before. When I got the prints back, I was just amazed by what that camera allowed me to do.