Olympus Pen-FT

This was a revolution in camera design. Like the Swiss ladies watch, Olympus began their fierce competition with the rest of the camera makers in Japan in miniaturization. This camera has everything moved around to make everything fit (a descendant of OM-1). The viewfinder is unique to this camera, and if you desperately  try one like it, you'll probably find it in 16 mm movie cameras. The focusing screen is placed vertically on the side, and the viewfinder light path brings it to the best position of the camera: Left side on the back.

 

The shutter is a thin Titanium rotary disc that would deliver full aperture exposure at 1/500 of a second (favorable in flash photography. It was, and still is the only half frame SLR camera system with everything except a motor drive.

Olympus Pen FT half frame camera

Disc Shutter

Viewfinder

Film Transport

Pen-FT disassembly from my book: "Restoring the SLR"

Pen-FT disc Shutter made of corrugated Titanium disc

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for a brief history of camera design at Olympus, and Pen-FT design