Olympus Pen FT
The Olympus Pen FT is a work of art disguised as a camera. Designed by legendary camera designer Yoshihisa Maitani, the Pen FT succeeded the original Pen F and was introduced to the world in 1966. Where the Olympus Pen F broke amazing ground by becoming the world's most compact 35mm SLR (and a half-frame SLR at that), the Pen FT added a few tweaks. The most notable addition is the inclusion of the non-coupled light meter. The viewfinder displayed a meter reading that would then be transferred to the lens in a fashion similar to the EV scale found on other cameras of the era. While a bit cumbersome, this was still 1966 and having an on-board light meter was nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, the FT revised the film advance lever to be single instead of double stroke.
As mentioned above, the Pen FT is a half-frame camera, meaning it produces an 18x24mm negative that is half the size of the traditional 35mm frame. This half-frame is oriented in a portrait fashion, so the viewfinder is vertical instead of horizontal. The size of the half-frame exposure allows for twice the number of images to be made on a single roll of film. So your 36 exposure rolls suddenly become 72 exposures rolls. This can be either a blessing or a curse depending on how prolifically you shoot film.
Like the Pen F, the FT made use of the same system of interchangeable lenses. While the standard lens is considered the 38mm or 40mm, you can find lenses as wide as 20mm and as telephoto as 800mm. There is a surprisingly large selection of lenses available for this camera. Additionally, Olympus made a series of lens adapters in order to mount the lenses from other systems onto the Pen F and FT.
If you want to own one of the best and most impressive examples of camera design, you need an Olympus Pen FT in your collection.
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