Olympus Pen EE3
The Olympus Pen EE3 is one of those cameras that quietly reminds you why film photography is fun in the first place. Small, simple, and surprisingly capable, it’s a camera that doesn’t demand your attention.
The Pen series began in 1959, designed by Yoshihisa Maitani. With the goal of making photography more accessible he inspired a range of cameras that were compact, affordable and easy to use.
The EE3 itself arrived in 1973 and stayed in production until the early 1980s, representing the later evolution of the Pen line. By this point, Olympus had refined the concept into something incredibly user friendly, a fully automatic, fixed focus camera powered by a selenium cell light meter (no batteries required).
Half-frame is a concept that not every photographer is familiar with but it is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of using the full 35mm frame (24×36mm), a half-frame camera uses half that area (18×24mm). The result: you get two photos where one would normally fit, a 36 exposure roll becomes roughly 72 shots and you have a portrait style viewfinder. It’s economical and makes you shoot more freely, because each frame “costs” less.
The film I paired with this camera was the Flic Film Apollo 18. This film was rolled with half-frame cameras in mind, making the regular 18 exposures into 36 half-frames. The Flic Film Apollo is known for being a fantastic medium speed film that delivers warm tones and beautifully sharp grain. For a first experience with this film, I was pleasantly surprised!
Testing the Olympus Pen EE3 while walking along Falmouth seafront felt like the perfect pairing. This is a camera built for wandering. There’s no fiddling with focus, or worrying about shutter speeds.
The selenium cell light meter handles exposure automatically and if is too dark, the camera simply refuses to fire and its famous red flag pops into action, saving you from wasted frames.
The Olympus Pen EE3 is not a technical powerhouse but that’s precisely why it works. It is a camera that is effortless to use and compact enough to make it the perfect companion for everyday picture taking. It’s a camera you can hand to anyone and they’ll get usable results immediately. In a world of increasingly complex cameras, the EE3 reminds you that photography doesn’t need to be complicated to be meaningful.
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Check out the camera from this review. This camera has been checked, tested and is fully working. It has also been fitted with new light seals. Includes wrist strap and original Olympus lens cap.
Olympus Pen EE3