Olympus Pen F - Legendary Half frame SLR from Olympus

If I have to choose the most famous camera designer out of the history of Olympus,

Yashihisa Maitani will definitely be my choice.

Olympus OM1 which started the trends of lightweight SLR,

Olympus XA ，a representative of compact rangefinder camera,

and Olympus Pen series which brought the half frame camera into daily life,

all of these are the works of Yashihisa Maitani as a camera designer.

Until nowadays, they still are the hot selling items in second hand market.

 

Legendary camera designer - Yashihisa Maitani

Talking about Olympus Pen F, it surely can be seen as the perfect artwork in the career of
Yashihisa Maitani.

It is not just the first SLR shoot in half frame format,

also brought the Olympus Pen series half frame camera into a professional level and recognized by professional photographer, like Eugene Smith.

Though the external presence of Pen F is obviously different with normal SLR, it still worked in the same way with SLR to form an image.

That's the reason it had been granted as the first half frame SLR in the world.

Once Konica had launched a SLR, Konica Autoreflex, which you can choose to shoot in the format of full frame or half frame freely.

However, this may have a little bit different from Olympus Pen F.

D.Zuiko Auto.S 38mm f/2.8 x Fuji Superia 200

 There is an important meaning for me to lay my hand on my Olympus Pen F.

As I burned out a large amount of my saving to purchase an Olympus Pen F,

it seems difficult for me to own and shoot with every cameras in every brands.

That made me to set a goal for myself: I will choose a most classic model of camera from each brand as my collections.

Olympus Pen F is the first of my collection.

D.Zuiko Auto S 38mm f/2.8 x Kodak Tmax 100

Why I chose the 1st generation Olympus Pen F instead of the 2nd one, Olympus Pen FT, which came with more advanced functions such as light meter, self timer and more popular ?

Without the large gothic character "F" in front of the camera,

the aesthetic and classical look can't be found on Pen FT. That's it !!

As the first half frame SLR which is quite different with others,

there is a lot of things need to be adapted by first time user.

A darker viewfinder may increased the difficulty to focus.

Defaulted to shoot in vertical composition, shutter release button in rectangle shape, shutter speed adjustment ring located at the front of the camera, wind the film advance lever twice for each shoot etc.

All of these are different with the experience to use a SLR.

Well, these may also can be taken as the unique experience of Pen F.

D.Zuiko Auto.S 38mm f/2.8 x DNP Centuria 100

It seems not so enough to have a fastest shutter speed of 1/500s as a SLR.

However, it still can satisfy your needs if you learn to get along with the limitation.

Same with other half frame cameras, Pen F allowed you to shoot 72 images in one roll of film.

Most of the time, the lab which processes your film will scan 2 frames in one image (like the one above)

if you didn't notice the lab master to scan each frames separately. 

Some photographers would took it as a way to create interesting photos.

It you like to experience the interesting of half frame shooting, you may have a taste of it by acquire an entry level half frame camera.

There is dozen of options in Olympus Pen series.