Pen D3 - half frame, full satisfaction

[Julio1fer]

After a long time, I loaded a short roll in my Olympus Pen D3, to test what I can get with the new scanner. This little camera is a favorite - it may be the easy ergonomics, simplicity, very light release, or whatever. Old Maitani knew a thing or two about camera design.

Took a walk on the beach last Saturday, here are two that came out more or less as intended. Wasted a few frames forgetting to take the lens cap out - should be more careful.





Central crop of the last one, at max scanner definition. That Oly lens has info to give beyond grain and scanning capacity!



Film was FP4+ in Beutler, not exactly the best for this test. I should try Delta or TMX next time.

Thanks for watching!

[PFMcFarland]

Lovely!

PF

[alexvaras]

Pretty good lens indeed! Waiting for more to come .

[Santiago Montenegro]

Lovely indeed. I never get around to using my Pens because rolls last forever!

[Julio1fer]

Thanks for the comments! Santiago, you are right. These days I bulk load, so I can choose the roll length. It works for me with short rolls.

A 36-frame roll in a half-frame camera seems to last more than the Trojan war.

[Philip]

Nice work (with what is one of my favourite cameras!). I've long been a fan of half-frame -- when the subject and natural framing is right, it can be excellent quality. And, being half-frame, it fits the old bottom-feeding sensibility, too.

[Philip]

By the way, on the long rolls -- I discovered that once I switched bye and large to half-frame, my shooting changed a bit. I started taking multiple shots of the "same" thing which often resulted in much better pictures of people, when that is what I was shooting.

[Julio1fer]

Half frame is great for portraits, maybe because of the vertical format and lower anxiety factor about burning film. There is less fussing with focus, because of the large DOF of these lenses.

In this roll I also took several shots of the same subject, and only some of them were with lens cap on. I am progressing!

[Philip]

. . . only some of them were with lens cap on . . . .

Ha ha! I know that feeling well.

[PFMcFarland]

You need a lens cap with a loop to put one of those retainer straps in (only throw the strap away), and then place it on the lens so that the loop shows in the viewfinder to let you know the cap is still on.

PF