Olympus Pen F

The Olympus Pen F had been a camera I avoided for a long time. It is one of the only mechanical SLRs in half frame and one of the original half frame cameras. But two things had always discouraged me. First, it is almost as big and heavy as many full-frame 35mm SLRs. Second was the lack of a meter. As interests wax and wane, the Pen F eventually became increasingly desirable. A lot of the images HFC members submitted with the Pen F were just really good. So I finally bit the bullet.

When you pick it up it feels heavy and solid... like it was hewn from a single piece of metal. Like any SLR, focus and aperture are adjusted on the lens, but unlike most SLRs the shutter speeds are adjusted by a dial on the front. Speeds from B to 1/500. I used the 38mm/1.8, which is fairly zoomed at about 53mm equivalent compared to most half frames. I found the lens a joy to use.

I shot Fuji C200 using a modified Sunny 16 approach. I really liked the ability to focus on closer objects and get a blurry background. The longer focal length produced images quite different from what I am used to with half frame. I found myself experimenting with alternate subject matter. The images have a cinematic quality I do not get from my Pens.