Plants & Animals

 Albuquerque is having fine Fall weather.  Daytime temperatures are in the 50s, while the nights are cold enough to cause the mulberry trees to lose all their leaves.  I spent the week walking around with my Olympus  Pen-FT, visiting the botanical garden, the riverside forest and the Rio Grande Nature Center.

The local wildlife rescue group put on their yearly education event to give visitors to the Nature Center an opportunity for a closeup look at the area's common raptors, a Kestrel, a Red-Tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl.  All three had wing injuries preventing them from living free in the wild, but they were all healthy looking and well behaved.

Half the size, Twice the fun

 The upside of the increase in film prices is that it gave me an excuse to acquire another half-frame camera.  It is one of Maitani's masterpieces, the Olympus Pen-FT.

The Pen-FT is only marginally larger than my Leica IIIa.  It seems amazing that Maitani was able to fit a single lens reflex system into such a small container.

On the morning after the camera's arrival I loaded it with a roll of Kentmere 400, first shooting a few frames near home, and then going down to the Plaza Vieja to finish off  the roll.  

The F Zuiko Auto-S 1.8/38mm lens focuses down to about one foot.

Finishishing off the Kentmere in the Plaza Vieja took a while as the 24-shot roll yielded 53 images!

It being a Friday morning, the old cars were lined up in front of the church waiting for their pictures to be taken.

'86 El Camino

'32 Ford Victoria

I bumped into my friend, Bob, in the Plaza so we took pictures of each other with the Pen-FT.

Bob

Mike

The camera worked perfectly.  I have ordered six rolls of Kentmere 100 and two of Kodak Gold 200 which I think will be well-suited to the half-frame capability.  I will probably also get some bulk film so I can make up some film rolls with a smaller number of frames.

The manual has illustrations showing the great array of lenses and accessories made by Olympus for the Pen-FT including adapters allowing the use of many standard 35mm lenses from Nikon, Practica, Leica and Exakta.

And, of course, this: