Olympus Pen-FT, In the Garden

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen-FT, the only 35mm half-frame SLR film system ever built, catching the essence of the garden.

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My first In The Garden session with the Olympus Pen-FT, fitted with an Olympus F.Zuiko 1:1.8 38mm lens. The camera works OK, except for the exposure meter, which was about 7 stops out of whack.

Exposures for the first roll were all by trial and error, based on the best of what I know of the Sunny-16 rule.

The Olympus Pen-F system (Pen-F, Pen-FT, Pen-FV series), introduced by Olympus in 1963, was the only half-frame SLR and the smallest full-system SLR ever produced. It was in a class of its own, a unique system with a smooth, sleek, minimalist design. The Pen-F does not have the characteristic SLR bump to house the pentaprism as it uses a system of mirrors, including a primary that moves vertically out of the light path when the shutter is released.

Olympus Pen-FT, F.Zuiko Pen-F 38mm f/1.8

The Pen-FT (1966) follows the introduction of the Pen F (1963) and comes with a single-stroke film advance, a built-in self-timer, and open aperture TTL (through the lens) exposure metering, among others. The TTL metering uses a semi-silvered mirror that splits a portion of the incoming light to the metering cell, resulting in a viewfinder that is dimmer than that of the original Pen F.

Olympus Pen EF, Image Aspect Ratio

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EF 35mm half-frame film camera, looking at the portrait format, or the 3:4 image aspect ratio.

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While most of us take pictures in the landscape or horizontal format, half-frame cameras are inherently designed to capture images in the portrait or vertical format, ot the half-frame, in 3:4 aspect ratio.

The 3:4 aspect is an uncommon ratio, seldom mentioned except maybe when talking about images that are a bit too fat, a ratio that is difficult to work with, or image frames that are difficult to fill effectively.

The film format for half-frame cameras is 24x18mm on a regular 135 film, which is half the size of a normal 35mm frame measuring 24x36 mm. With a half-frame camera, one can shoot and capture twice as many images on a standard roll of film - 48 shots on a 24-exposure roll, 72 shots on a 36-exposure roll, and so on.

Olympus Pen-EF

Holding the camera horizontally with both hands is also the norm for taking photographs. The camera will normally rest in the grasp of the right hand, with the index finger used to press the shutter release. On a more complex camera, the left hand will normally be used to focus the lens and make other adjustments, such as aperture and other settings necessary for the correct exposure of the shot.

On a simple point-and-shoot, the left hand will just be a support to hold the camera steady. With half-frames, this is the same stance you will be holding the camera with, the difference being that your image will still be shot in the vertical frame. Rock steady images in a 3:4 image aspect ratio.

The scanned images, which were done by the processing lab, were post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) and tweaked with edits including Auto Tone Correction, Brightness & Contrast, Gamma, Hue & Saturation, Sharpness & Blur, Unsharp Mask, Noise Reduction, and cropping of the doubled-scanned images into single images.

Olympus Pen EF, The Portrait Format

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EF 35mm half-frame film camera, looking at the portrait format, or the 3:4 image aspect ratio.

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I am dedicating this and other posts in this series to the 3:4 image aspect ratio, as photographed on the Olympus Pen EE-S, Pen EF, Pen FT, and other half-frame format film cameras that I have or may collect along the way.

A half-frame camera, also known as a single-frame or split-frame, captures images at half the size (18x24mm) of a standard 35mm negative film (24x36mm). You can shoot twice as many pictures and get 72 exposures on a 36-exposure roll, and 48 on a 24-exposure roll. Most half-frame cameras are manufactured with a vertical film framing setup, meaning that they shoot in a vertical (portrait) orientation as opposed to the horizontal (landscape) orientation of standard 35mm cameras.

Olympus Pen EF

Operating the camera, not unlike any other point-and-shoot, is equally easy and can be done one-handed. Metering is by the standard Selenium 'electric-eye' system with the red pop-up flag that locks the shutter in low light conditions. With the Olympus EF, however, you can override this lock by activating the level to power the flash unit, cute.

The scanned images were post-processed on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3), which includes cropping the doubled-scanned images into single images, and edits with Auto Tone Correction, Brightness & Contrast, Gamma, Hue & Saturation, Sharpness & Blur, Unsharp Mask, and Noise Reduction.

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Olympus PEN EE-S, Moments

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintahe analog Olympus Pen EE-S 35mm half-frame film camera, moments and memories from a place often frequented.

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Moments brings me back to my favorite hangout I frequent when selling used and vintage 35mm film cameras, manual focus lenses, and other film camera accessories. Those were the days, I enjoyed my time there, and with the half-frame Pen EE.S, a fixed focus point-and-shoot camera with a 28mm f/3.5 lens with a shutter speed of 1/60 second, images to reminisce about the moments.

The Pen EE.S is a bit of a gem and a true classic, easily recognized by the selenium meter window around the lens. It is well built, feels solid and robust, fits snugly in the palm of your hand, and has a very quiet shutter that is hardly audible beyond a short distance. Shooting and working both the film advance and the shutter release with one hand is as easy as eating a pie.

Olympus Pen EE.S

Images were tweaked on the Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) for Auto Tone Correction, Tone Curve, Brightness & Contrast, Hue & Saturation, Sharpness & Blur, and Noise Reduction.

Olympus Pen EF, Curated Colors

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EF 35mm half-frame film camera, curated colors from a roll of expired film.

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Images from the expired roll of color film negatives, depending on the age of the film, may look rather pale and washed out with muted colors. While retaining them in their original form is the thought for posterity, giving them a few post-process touch-ups could do well for other forms of presentation.

Curating these JPEG images on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) includes the use of Tone Correction, with its strength adjusted manually; very high contrast on the Brightness & Contrast tool, same with color saturation on the Hue & Saturation tool; sharpened with the Sharpness & Blur, Unsharp Mask, and Noise Reduction tools. The images look pretty strong now. I will probably tone it down later for consistency of colors across my image folio.

Olympus Pen EF

The Olympus Pen EF, 1981, was the last of Olympus Pen's half-frame cameras. It was produced only in black, with white lettering, and had a small built-in flash powered by a single AA battery. The lens is a fixed focus G Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 lens with a focal range from 1.4 meters to infinity, coupled to an electric-eye (EE) programmed lens shutter mechanism range from F3.5-1/30 sec. to F22-1/250 sec. Takes 72 shots on a standard 36-exposure 35mm film cassette.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Surreal Colors

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EE-S 35mm Half-frame fil camera, surreal colors from a roll of expired film.

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It will be quite a hard sell trying to visualize the outcome of your shots with expired film; just be ready to expect the unexpected. Expired films may be fogged, have decreased sensitivity and contrast, increased grain, color shifts, and reduced saturation that may range from muted colors to extreme desaturation affecting a specific color.

No two rolls of expired film will produce the same results either, as each degrades and warps differently. Even so, expired films can still surprise you with unexpected imagery. Color shifts, foggy and fuzzy images lacking in sharpness, may provide a vision of the surreal, an option you may not get at all with fresh and current films.

Olympus Pen EE.S

Give yourself a go and you may end up on a high. Sourcing stocks of expired film, however, may not be easy, as they are not as easily available as expected.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Down the LRT Line, II

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, a nostalgic ride down the LRT line with a vintage analog Olympus PEN EE-S 35mm half-frame film camera, and a roll of expired film, Part II.

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The Olympus Pen EE-S was the world's first camera with a programmable EE shutter with shutter speeds of 1/30 and 1/250 sec. The shutter speed changes automatically according to the light level. This model increases the appropriate exposure range over its original EE predecessor, which has only a shutter speed of 1/60 sec.

While its predecessor, the Pen EE, came with a 28mm F3.5 lens, the EE-S is fitted with a 30mm F2.8 lens. and a three-zone focus system to cater to the wider aperture. The Olympus Pen EE series heralded the start of the programmable EE camera boom.

Olympus Pen EE.S

Images here are from a trip down the LRT line from Kelana Jaya to Kuala Lumpur, shot with the Olympus Pen EE-S on a roll of expired film. Post-processing was done on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3), and the images were edited selectively for Auto Tone Correction, Brightness & Contrast, Color Balance, Hue & Saturation, Color Filter, Sharpness & Blur, Unsharp Mask, and Noise Reduction. Tone Curve, Tilt Adjustment, Gamma, and Color Filter edits were also applied to a few images.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Sorting The Images

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, images with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EE-S 35mm Half-frame film camera, sorting the images from a roll of expired film.

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It was a while back when I took the Olympus Pen EE.S and a roll of expired film for a session in the garden. Had the film roll developed, scanned, but kept aside, and was completely forgotten because I missed uploading it to the image editor.

To cut the story short, I came across the folder only just recently, opened it up, uploaded the images to the desktop, sieved my way through a lot of mostly murky and muddy images, and decided to edit a few for this posting.

Olympus Pen EE.S

Expired films do not become useless as soon as they pass the expiry date. Some can last years, or even decades, past their expiry date as long as they’re carefully stored. Heat and radiation are the main culprits that will eventually turn the film into a fogged mess.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Down the LRT Line, I

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, a nostalgic ride down the LRT line with a vintage analog Olympus PEN EE-S 35mm half-frame film camera, and a roll of expired film, Part I.

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I had the opportunity of taking the Olympus Pen EE.S and a roll of expired color negative film on a trip down the LRT line some time ago. That was the first time I was using the camera, and it was a real point-and-shoot experience for me.

Results were, of course, nowhere near expectations, with blurry and underexposed captures, washed-out colors, grain, and all. To get the images to where they are as shown, they were uploaded for post-processing on Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3).

Olympus Pen EE.S

The Olympus Pen EE-S (1962) was the second model, after the Pen EE in 1961, in the series of amateur EE models produced by Olympus. A true point-and-shoot camera with fully automatic exposure and fixed focusing, these cameras are easily recognized by the selenium meter window around the lens. The EE model became a driving force behind the popularity of the Pen series cameras from Olympus.