Camera Talk

Olympus Pen W Some of you may have read in Rangefinder Forum back in June about the Olympus Pen W that sold on Ebay for $1334. I saw that and checked recently for completed sales of that camera from July until September 28th: in about 3 months, 3 Olympus Pen W cameras were sold on Ebay; the average price was just a bit more than $400. Because it was produced for only a few months in 1964-65 and production estimates run around 20-something thousand with sales estimates not so good, the Pen W is a natural collector camera. It's also cute, if it hasn't been used too much and got some of its black coat rubbed off. These sales figures were fresh in my mind when I started straightening out my stored negatives going back to the early Fifties (a job that almost turns me against taking pictures, but I won't go into that); I found several pages of half-frames that I remembered taking with the Pen W and, luckily, I had marked Pen W on them so my memory was confirmed. I think what happened several years back is that I stopped using the Pen W because I thought it was worth lots of dollars. Now I'm sorry that I didn't use it more because (a) my Pen W isn't very collectible because of brassing and retouching, and (b) I think it handles wide angle photos (its focal length is equivalent to 35mm in full frame) very well.

I won't go into detail about the Pen W features. It is very similar to the other manual-exposure Pens (Original Pen from 1959 and Pen S from 1964) except for its 5 element f.2.8, 25mm lens (the 1959 Pen has a 28mm, f/3.5). Like the rest of the family, the Pen W lets you set aperture and shutter speed manually, focus by zone or marked measure, use a screw-in filter, use a cable release, or make a time exposure with the B setting-- and you can carry it in the breast pocket of a man's shirt. Once exposure and focus have been set, a smooth shutter release and quick thumb wind make it easy to take a lot of photos quickly and quietly. The yellow framelines in the vf are stable and bright. You can use any flash that you want, unlike later P&S cameras. I've chosen a few photos from 2005 that may illustrate my point (b) above.

Brooks Bldg., St. Paul Lowertown. (Built in 1892 as Merchants National Bank). Brooks Bldg. Diptych. /Exterior Details/
St. Paul Union Station. [Second edit to replace lost photos; Photos of Pen W and Union Station were replaced due to unavailability of the ones posted earlier)

I've been trying to get a Pen for a while now, since getting one that is only good for parts (EE2, a bit rusty inside). But they always go higher than what I'm willing to pay with UPS shipping from Washington state (about three time more than USPS). Haven't found one in the shops around here. The W sure would be a nice find.

PF

Phil, if you ever run across the original Pen EE with a working meter, I think that's a good find. The ASA/ISO only goes up to 200 and I think that it only has one shutter speed rather than the two that later EEs had; but, it's a real gem for taking photos. I looked at Ebay today and found 3 Pen W cameras: 2 of them didn't work (priced at ~$280 & $300) and the third was priced at $600; I guess that garage sales and thrift stores are a better choice.

Putting together this Pen W post got me interested in using that camera more. So on a bright Sunday afternoon we were spending some time near St. Paul's Upper Landing and then in Lowertown where several of the b&w photos above were taken. I had one 12 exposure roll of Fuji 200 left and I used it in the Pen W. I'll post a few photos from that roll. To resize these photos, I used the "Save for Web" feature in PS Elements 6. If anyone has feedback on how that looks on their computer, I'd be happy to hear it. I'm still working on a consistent method to get a good product for posting. (Photos with Pen W & Fuji 200, minimal adjustments except for rotating the last one of Brooks Bldg.)

-View of the "patio" at Upper Landing Park, looking North; the pools are part of the fountain arrangements. -Water trough and steps -Windows and Window Wells near 5th and Jackson -Detail of Brooks Building (shown in b&w in earlier post) [Edited 11/30/15 to restore lost photos]

Those look great, Paul. For posting photos, I just crop everything to 5x7 or 5x5. Others I may do a 16x9 crop, if it fits better, or a freestyle crop when I'm trying to eliminate something I don't want in the frame but a standard crop won't fit (especially on panoramas). Then I save them at the 8 setting. Upload it all to Flickr, then when I want to post something to a forum, I use the medium 640 size BB Code.

PF