Unfortunately, the Pen FT I purchased turned out to be faulty: the self-timer doesn't work nor does the light meter. Hopefully its replacement, a Pen FV, will be better.
genji wrote:
Unfortunately, the Pen FT I purchased turned out to be faulty: the self-timer doesn't work nor does the light meter. Hopefully its replacement, a Pen FV, will be better.
genji wrote:
Unfortunately, the Pen FT I purchased turned out to be faulty: the self-timer doesn't work nor does the light meter. Hopefully its replacement, a Pen FV, will be better.
Shitty news... At least you managed to get some fine shots out of it. It appears mine is faulty as well; Meter 'works', but is reading 2-3 stops low.
beardedspoooon wrote:
That's a bummer! Hope that FV works out for you!
Mildly disappointing but these cameras are 50 years old and I can return it for a refund. I liked the Pen F/FT/FV design and the half-frame format so much that I’ll persist until I manage to get a good one.
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helimat wrote:
Shitty news... At least you managed to get some fine shots out of it. It appears mine is faulty as well; Meter 'works', but is reading 2-3 stops low.
My meter “works” in the same way that yours does! I wound up using a handheld incident meter or guesstimated the exposure and my negatives were all properly exposed so I won’t miss the lack of a meter in the FV. I also have the MyLightMeter app on my phone so I’ll give that a try too.
helimat wrote:
Shitty news... At least you managed to get some fine shots out of it. It appears mine is faulty as well; Meter 'works', but is reading 2-3 stops low.
Do you have the right battery adapter?
Mine was like that if I just used a regular battery as it is designed to be used with a 1.35v battery.
With the adapter that has a diode to lower the voltage from 1.5 to 1.35, the meter is accurate.
There are lots of adapters out there that just adapt the size, not the voltage of the battery.
Desmolicious wrote:
Do you have the right battery adapter?
Mine was like that if I just used a regular battery as it is designed to be used with a 1.35v battery.
With the adapter that has a diode to lower the voltage from 1.5 to 1.35, the meter is accurate.
There are lots of adapters out there that just adapt the size, not the voltage of the battery.
I picked up a Wein MBR625 battery from the local camera shop. It's supposed to be 1.35v
Edit, I'm curious what battery Jonathon was using... @genji ?
helimat wrote:
Mine is the latest as well - It is a keeper for sure!
yeah i heard the latest is the best one so that's the one i went after as well. managed to score one that looks brand new other than a slight non-paintloss bump right at the filter ring area which you can't see once you have the hood on (included in the sweet price of 250 usd).
Developed some really old rolls this weekend. Originally taken probably 6 yrs ago and actually expired in my closet after - charm of shooting film haha.
Desmolicious wrote:
Do you have the right battery adapter?
Mine was like that if I just used a regular battery as it is designed to be used with a 1.35v battery.
With the adapter that has a diode to lower the voltage from 1.5 to 1.35, the meter is accurate.
There are lots of adapters out there that just adapt the size, not the voltage of the battery.
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helimat wrote:
I picked up a Wein MBR625 battery from the local camera shop. It's supposed to be 1.35v
Edit, I'm curious what battery Jonathon was using... @genji@ ?
I’m using a Kanto MR-9 adapter, which I think is the same kind that Desmolicious recommends. It converts the 1.55V voltage of a SR43 silver oxide battery to the 1.35V of the original PX625 mercury battery that the Pen F cameras used. I tried a Wein battery in my LeicaMeter MR but it discharged quickly and they’re very expensive to buy in Australia. Even though the MR-9 adapters aren’t cheap, over time one recoups the cost by using less expensive SR43 batteries.
genji wrote:
I’m using a Kanto MR-9 adapter, which I think is the same kind that Desmolicious recommends. It converts the 1.55V voltage of a SR43 silver oxide battery to the 1.35V of the original PX625 mercury battery that the Pen F cameras used. I tried a Wein battery in my LeicaMeter MR but it discharged quickly and they’re very expensive to buy in Australia. Even though the MR-9 adapters aren’t cheap, over time one recoups the cost by using less expensive SR43 batteries.
I plan to use an adapter as well for all the same reasons, but they are weeks away and the Wein was on the shelf 10 minutes away. The reason I asked is because if your Pen is doing the same thing as mine, but with the adapted battery, there's not much point in waiting for the adapter to troubleshoot my Pen further.
helimat wrote:
I plan to use an adapter as well for all the same reasons, but they are weeks away and the Wein was on the shelf 10 minutes away. The reason I asked is because if your Pen is doing the same thing as mine, but with the adapted battery, there's not much point in waiting for the adapter to troubleshoot my Pen further.
I’ll test the meter in the Pen FT with the adapted battery more thoroughly before I return it. If I still have a good Wein battery I’ll try that too. I’ll report back on how that goes.
My Pen FV arrived today and the viewfinder really is significantly brighter and clearer, though I’m not sure how much of the improvement is due to my mounting the 42mm f/1.2 lens on it. I can’t recall how I wound up with two copies of the 40mm f/1.4 when I bought my Pen F lenses but that will enable me to do a direct comparison of the FT and the FV viewfinders.
genji wrote:
I’ll test the meter in the Pen FT with the adapted battery more thoroughly before I return it. If I still have a good Wein battery I’ll try that too. I’ll report back on how that goes.
My Pen FV arrived today and the viewfinder really is significantly brighter and clearer, though I’m not sure how much of the improvement is due to my mounting the 42mm f/1.2 lens on it. I can’t recall how I wound up with two copies of the 40mm f/1.4 when I bought my Pen F lenses but that will enable me to do a direct comparison of the FT and the FV viewfinders....Show more →
That would be great, looking forward to hearing your results. I'll play around too, it's definitely possible that I got a bum battery.
It appears mine is faulty as well; Meter 'works', but is reading 2-3 stops low. 
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