Lars and Peter,
Regarding the oly pen f and ft, the appartent differences are the ft
has a light meter and a self timer feature. The F had a nice etched
(?) gothic F on the front of the body to the right( as you look at
the camera from the front) of the Olympus - Pen signature. The gothic
F was displaced by the self timer lever on the FT.
Regarding the rotary shutter, it is easier to picture than describe,
but following is the text from a Pen F owners manual I have...."
Rotary Metal Focal Plane Shutter...The newly designed shutter on the
Pen F is completely different from other types of focal plane
shutters. It contains a semi circular titanium screen (50mm in dia)
which rotates in a clockwise direction at a distance of 1.6mm from
the film. This shutter works so rapidly that regardless of the
shutter speed it never fails to open completely, making it possible
for an electronic flash to be synchronized with it at speeds of from
1 to 1/500 of a second. (With other focal plane shutters this is
impossible when speeds exceed 1/60th of a second.)"
The typical prism of a 35mm is eliminated by having the mirror
pivot on its side(left side as you look at the camera body from the
front) with the long axis of the mirror parallel to the vertical
plane of the camera instead of with the horizontal plane as is the
case with any full size 35mm I am familiar with. The mirror swing is
then to the left, allowing light to pass by and onto the film plane.
The focus screen is mounted on its side and light passes through the
screen, a prism, bounces off a mirror, through a magnifier, another
prism and out to the eye. Got it<g>? If you want a copy of the manual
or pages describing the above let me know.
What this means is, when you hold the camera naturally the viewfinder
image is with its vertical axis up(as if you are holding a full 35mm
camera in its side). To get a frame with the long axis horizontal you
have to hold the pen f on its side. --Greg
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