A little OT, but ...

[Godfrey]

... since it's the 50th Anniversary of the Olympus Pen camera, I thought the FourThirds community might like to see these ...

They can still make photos although the selenium metering cells are long dead.

enjoy,

 

[monza]

This one isn't 50 but it *is* a Pen

 

[Diane B]

I'm certainly old enough but I honestly don't remember them. I guess, even though I've photographed since I was in college (a LONG time ago LOL), that I wasn't a photo geek enough to explore other systems.

I'd love to see some context for size for these--though I have an idea from the size of the lens. Such cool looking cameras--I'd love to handle one--how did that ASA knob on Monza's (I think that's what it is) affect handling??

Thanks for these---if Olympus has these in mind with their m4/3rds, then they will def. appeal to a lot of us.

Diane

 

[monza]

Ask and ye shall receive.

This is my FT I recently painted, leaving the engravings unfilled for a stealth look. The knob on the front is shutter speed. The 'sensor' of the Pen F has nearly twice the area as the 4/3 sensor.

40/1.4 on the FT, 38/1.8 on the G1.

Here is a recent shot (Velvia, 38mm Macro lens.)

 

[Godfrey]

I'm certainly old enough but I honestly don't remember them. I guess, even though I've photographed since I was in college (a LONG time ago LOL), that I wasn't a photo geek enough to explore other systems.

I'd love to see some context for size for these--though I have an idea from the size of the lens. Such cool looking cameras--I'd love to handle one--how did that ASA knob on Monza's (I think that's what it is) affect handling??

Thanks for these---if Olympus has these in mind with their m4/3rds, then they will def. appeal to a lot of us.

Diane

Just for amusement, here's the Pen EE next to the G1 too:

It's an itty-bitty camera. But the full-frame Rollei 35 and Minox 35GT-E are actually smaller ... they and cameras like them (the Olympus XA and such) pretty much killed off these diminutive half-frame 35s.

 

[monza]

The Pen F series is still the smallest SLR, about the same size body as a screw mount Leica rangefinder (by design, of course.) And no hump! This is where all those posts about the G1 faux prism originate...

 

[Godfrey]

The Pen F series is still the smallest SLR, about the same size body as a screw mount Leica rangefinder (by design, of course.) And no hump! This is where all those posts about the G1 faux prism originate...

Actually the Panasonic L1 is just about the same size as a Leica M, just 10mm thicker to accompdate the FourThirds lens mount. It uses a similar sideways reflex optical system as the Pen F. The G1 is smaller than an M, the VF hump is the flash enclosure.

An L1 slimmed for micro43 mount with the G1 VF is my fondest hope.

 

[monza]

With in-body vibration reduction.

 

[Diane B]

You guys are whetting my appetite for what's possibly to come (as long as it has an EVF or means to use one).

Diane

 

[Godfrey]

With in-body vibration reduction.

I can take it or leave it on in-body IS. I find I don't need it if I have a fast enough lens. IS is always nice to have ... but I'd take a slim body and fast lenses over IS any time.

 

[monza]

IS is important to me because I like to use longer lenses...I've seen some tack-sharp photos here using a Sony A900 with a 500mm lens hand-held at 1/20 sec; that's impressive.

 

[Godfrey]

... shot a roll of film with the Pen EE yesterday

got an idea for a little project:

Loaded it up with XP2, wandered around the neighborhood on my morning walk. Lab ran the C41 process for me this morning. Remarkably good exposures on all my negatives, given the hand-held meter and casual estimating I did ... guess I haven't lost my touch. ;-)

Pulled out the Nikon LS-20 and strip holder, been scanning all afternoon. Whew. Film and scanning is simply laborious work.

Once I've got them on disk, I'll see what I made and work out the rest of what I have in mind.

It is fun. It isn't particularly productive, but art doesn't have to be productive.

 

[monza]

Looking forward to photos, Godfrey. I enjoy the same process, except I have the scans done at the lab...last roll was 78 shots, that would take me forever.