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Olympus Pen F Half-Frame

The Pen F is a half-frame single lens reflex camera introduced in 1963 by Olympus. It is designed by the highly respected and quite famous engineer Maitani Yoshihisa. The original model is easily recognized by its big golden gothic letter F engraved to the right on the front plate, where later models sport a selftimer lever.

https://www.cameraquest.com/olypenf.htm

Ilford FP125
Ilford FP125

I use half-frame for my daily snapshots and when i know, I will not print larger than 24x18 cm. The standard lens Zuiko 38mm (Equivalent on 35mm full-frame of 53mm) renders smooth and warm and in black and white, a unique signature can be achieved with grain that occurs when using the smaller frame. The Pen takes photos in a vertical, portrait orientation, which I like very much.

Ilford FP125

Some Advantages of Half-frame in daily life

Todays new films and scanner deliver enlargements with very little grain and tonality loss. This means, if you are doing a 24x18 cm print, you will have very little quality loss in enlargement in comparison to 35mm (which is approx. 25% bigger).

Fuji Superia 200

Pen F lenses are small. The 38mm f/1.8 pictured above is smaller than any Leica-mount rangefinder 50s. Also, Pen F normal lenses focus to about 35cm, obviating any need for telephotos.

Fuji Superia 200

Half-frame cameras use one half of a 35mm frame and effectively double the number of photos you can take on a roll. A 36 expire roll of film will now allow 72 exposures.

Fuji Superia 200

All pictures shot with Olympus F. Zuiko 38/1.8 except the last two pictures, taken with the Olympus E. Zuiko 25/4. Scanned and developed by meinfilmlab on Fuji Frontier. 

Happy shooting and thanks for coming by...

Ilford FP125
Ilford FP125
Kodak TX400
Kodak TX400
Kodak TX400
Kodak TX400
Kodak TX400
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200
Fuji Superia 200

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