Olympus Pen-FT

The Olympus Pen-FT is lovely little camera that makes a super everyday carry. It takes 72 pictures on a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film. It does this by the cunning trick of taking pictures half the usual size. One side effect of this trick is that pictures have the “portrait” aspect ratio rather than the more common “landscape”. Another side effect is that when you get them processed you find that they are handled as a single print holding two different pictures. This can make for some nice juxtapositions. I can’t claim to have planned any of the ones came out, but I did form a habit of taking three pictures that might fit together on the principle that one of the pair will come out together.

This is a “single lens reflex” camera which means that your view when taking the picture is through the same lens that exposes the film. You can check focus before you take a shot. You can also remove the lens and pop a different one on, if you fancy a change of viewpoint. Although alternative lenses are a bit expensive and hard to get hold of.

A nice thing about the FT is that it has a built in exposure meter that displays a needle in the viewfinder. The needle indicates a number which you then use to set the lens. It’s not completely automatic but I really like that because it forces you to think about what shutter speed and aperture you are using. I exposed a reel of film and was delighted to discover that the exposure seems to be pretty much accurate too, which is nice.

If you are looking for a cool little “daily carry” analogue camera this would fit the bill very nicely. You can get it for a reasonable price if you are prepared to lurk around sale sites for a while. Make sure you get one with a working meter though, as this adds a lot of value.