Olympus PEN FT + G. Zuiko Auto-S 1.4/40mm | Analogue camera

The original: the Olympus Pen FT with G.Zuiko auto-S 1.4/40mm. The world's first half-frame 35mm single-lens reflex camera with interchangeable lens (18x24 mm format), was launched in 1966 by Olympus as a complement to the highly successful Pen viewfinder camera line. Designed by Maitani Yoshihisa. He became interested in photography through his father's Leica IIIf, which cost 200,000 Yen at the time in Japan. That was two years' salary for an ordinary Japanese person. Few could afford that. He wanted to build the cheapest and most user-friendly 35mm camera. The new camera needed to cost much less. Smaller and cheaper. Half-frame was smaller and allowed twice as many shots on a roll. A selenium light meter and automatic diaphragm control were added, resulting in the Olympus Pen EE. A huge success for 10,000 Yen, which was equivalent to two months' salary, affordable for an average Japanese. A whole series of Pen cameras traveled around the world. Small, user-friendly, affordable, the Pen was bought in large quantities by women worldwide. Ultimately, Olympus sold 17 million of these little cameras. According to Maitani, who also developed the OM1 and XA, the Pen F is a masterpiece of ingenuity and compactness, with a range of innovative features. These include a compact rotating shutter with a slit shutter plane that uses a lightweight titanium rotor to achieve a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 second and X-sync for flash at all shutter speeds, a brilliant Porro prism viewfinder (a combination of highly reflective mirrors) instead of a solid glass pentaprism, and a side-hinged reflex mirror that eliminates the usual prism bump. The Pen FT also formed the core of an extensive full range of lenses and accessories. Sadly, there is a small damage to the viewfinder edge around the viewing window. This occurs more often because there is no hot shoe for a flash.
Here is an accessory shoe that goes over it. It's easy to repair. Indeed, this camera is a masterpiece full of innovative features. A desirable possession, sought after by connoisseurs, and those who have a good one, keep and use it well, and it only increases in value. It already has a dozen digital successors, and more models are only coming.