Olympus PEN EE-S, When It All Started

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, image making with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EE-S, a vintage 35mm half-frame film camera featuring a sharp D. Zuiko 30mm f/2.8 lens, a look back to when it all started.

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I was rummaging through the image archive and came across a batch of images, taken with the Olympus Pen EE, that had been overlooked as part of my earlier blog posts. The images were at the beginning of my return to analog photography and my renewed interest in vintage cameras.

The Olympus Pen EE-S (1962) was the second iteration of the Olympus Pen EE (1959) series, which was to become the world's first 35mm half-frame camera produced for the mass market. The two cameras were later updated to the Pen EE (EL) and Pen EE-S (EL), which came with take-up spools that had been redesigned for easier film loading.

While the original Pen EE comes with a fixed-focus Zuiko 28mm F3.5 lens, the latter, as mentioned, comes with the wider and brighter Zuiko 30mm F2.8.

Olympus Pen EE.S

I have since moved on to other camera makes and models, including film autofocus compacts and film SLRs with interchangeable lenses, and often enough to image tests with vintage manual focus lenses mounted on the digital MFT (Micro Four Thirds). It is a refreshing thought to be able to look back and reminisce about the nostalgic vintage images that these cameras are capable of.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Reminiscing

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, image making with a vintage analog Olympus Pen EE-S, reminiscing the light, color, and hues of the evening.

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The most telling effects of using expired film are decreased sensitivity and contrast, increased grain, and color shifts. Color shifts may be subtle or extreme, depending on both age and storage conditions. Different emulsions may shift in different ways, some moving toward the blue and others toward the magenta or the yellow, because different dyes age differently.

In many cases, with or without color shifts, saturation will be reduced. This can range from slightly muted colors to extreme desaturation bordering on selective color. With all films, you can get a variety of unevenness - mottling or spotting, streaking, inconsistent grain, and so on.

Olympus Pen EE-S

The older you get in terms of the expiration date, the more factors you need to consider. In addition to the expected fogging of the film, you’ll want to be aware of the required developing processes. Currently, it’s no longer possible to develop Kodachrome (K-12 or K-14 processes), and it may not be possible to develop color films designed for other defunct methods, such as the C-22 negative and the E-2, E-3, or E-4 transparency processes, since the chemicals no longer exist.

Olympus PEN EE-S, Catching The Light

Half-Frames: Film photography favorites, image making with a vintage analog 35mm half-frame Olympus Pen EE-S, lights on a roll of expired film.

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How do you set up an expired film to catch the light? Plenty of theories here, nothing hard and fast, and a warning not to get taken in by all and what you read, everybody has their own opinion. It boils down to the fact that each individual roll of film will degrade differently from others, even if they are from the same production batch.

A lot will depend on how these films have been stored. Film stored cold, especially frozen, tends to degrade much more slowly. Color films stored like this will keep their dyes from deteriorating, and are often just as good, or almost as good, as a fresh roll.

Olympus Pen EE-S

Heat, of course, is the film’s worst enemy. If you buy in bulk, you might want to sacrifice a roll for testing. If you buy loose or single items and cannot determine how the film was stored, you really won’t know until you put it in your camera and shoot it. Generally, you may just want to set the film ISO speed a stop or two slower than specified and bracket your shots with exposure compensation.

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 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.