Olympus Pen FT, In the Garden

Half Frames: Film photography favorites, image making with an Olympus Pen FT, the half-frame SLR, catching the essence of the garden.

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My first In The Garden session with the Olympus Pen-FT, fitted with an Olympus F.Zuiko 1:1.8 38mm lens. The camera works OK, except for the exposure meter which was about 7 stops out of whack. Exposure to the first roll of shots was then by trial and error, based on the best of my Sunny-16 knowledge.

The Olympus Pen-F system (Pen-F, Pen-FT, Pen-FV series), introduced by Olympus in 1963, was the only half-frame SLR and the smallest full-system SLR ever produced. It was in a class of its own, a unique system with a smooth, sleek, minimalist design. The Pen-F does not have the characteristic SLR bump to house the pentaprism as it uses a system of mirrors including a primary that moved vertically out of the light path when the shutter was released.

Olympus Pen FT, F.Zuiko 38mm 1:1.8

The Pen-FT (1966) follows the introduction of the Pen F (1963) and comes with a single-stroke film advance, a built-in self-timer, and open aperture TTL (through the lens) exposure metering, among others. The TTL metering uses a semi-silvered mirror that splits a portion of the incoming light to the metering cell, this result is a viewfinder that is dimmer than that of the original Pen F.

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