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Home >> Photography >> Film Equipment Canon
FTb - My Father’s Camera
For as far back as I can remember my father had this camera, given to him as a gift by one of my uncles. It was used regularly when I was a child, documenting certain years of my growth and whenever relatives came to visit, we of course had to do some obligatory family photos for the album. Then, one day the regular use of the camera came to an end and it sat in a cabinet for years. I think this lack of use coincided with my teen years when documenting my growth into an adolescent was no longer as cute as it was when I was a child. This particular old camera, dating back to the early 1970s (1973 introduction date for the FTb), is in mint condition. Brassing? Hah! Not when it was almost always used with the thick, hard leather cover case. Shutter stress? Not likely with what I estimate to be less than a 100 rolls of film put through its near three decades of life. It had a bit of grime on it here and there but nothing that a bit of cleaning didn’t clear up. The only concern is what appears to be some foam rot where the mirror slaps up to clear the way for the shutter. The foam is now sticky and has left some of its residue on the front edge of the mirror itself. On the whole though, this camera will likely still be working in the years ahead when my kids might want to take an interest in photography. However, I have a feeling the kids will not treat it with kid gloves like my father had for all those years. Hell, even I could care less about that leather camera cover for it, as it just gets in the way for changing film or for mounting onto a tripod. Tech Talk
I believe the classic styling of the FTb and its ilk such as the venerable Nikon FM series, are derived from the form follows function cues of Leica rangefinder cameras. Except for the prism housing, the controls are pretty much the same for all mechanical cameras. Rewind dial on the top left side, shutter speed dial, film advance lever and shutter release on the top right side and a shoe, hot or not, for a flash in between. That’s it. The FTb is not a professional class camera, but it would have been a solid middle rank model in its day and it reveals how times have changed to this current day. Compared to its contemporaries, the FTb was about average in size and weight, which compared to today’s cameras means more heft from a metal build than from spastic plastic. The enduring Nikon FM series cameras are smaller and bit lighter than the FTb. The chrome finish for the top and bottom deck finishes off the rustic look and makes it look truly “classic” whereas a black finish for a camera from that era could still be passed off as relatively current. The still current Yashica FX-3 is a bit of a pipsqueak compared to the FTb in size and weight thanks to the generous amount of plastic found on the FX-3.
The FTb has both features and when I say mirror lockup, I do mean a real mirror lockup and not some cheesy pseudo lockup tied into the self-timer. The controls for the mirror lockup are located with the self-timer on the FTb, but they are independent of each other. This feature itself elevates the FTb to a higher level than I would have otherwise placed it without said feature. Despite being nearly three decades old, the match needle exposure meter seems accurate enough. I referenced it to my budget Sekonic L188 reflected-light handheld meter and the readings are identical. The FTb has never been in for a service call, so not bad at all. I do know the shutter speeds are a bit off thanks to the good folks at Leo’s doing an exposure check on their calibration device, so a bit of care and bracketing is required when shooting slide film. As nicely built as the FTb is, it’s as ergonomic as a brick compared to most current cameras. The film advance lever requires a pretty long throw for film advancing and the shutter release seems a bit springy. The modern day version of the classic camera of yore, the Nikon FM3A runs circles around the FTb for technological advances without giving up what makes these cameras so appealing for so many, battery-less operation. The shutter operation is fairly smooth thanks to its cloth shutter, which makes for a much less jarring sound than the Yashica FX-3’s shutter; however, the Nikon F100’s shutter is even smoother and quieter. Unlike
the budget conscious Yashica FX-3, the FTb has a meter on/off switch,
so you won’t have to worry about draining the camera’s battery by
inadvertently resting something on top of the shutter release button.
Speaking of batteries, the FTb dates from the time of mercury cell
batteries, which are banned in the
I just happen to have a couple of these cells leftover from checking the meter (broken) in my Konica S2 Auto. Use of mercury cells is important for accurate exposure information due to voltage considerations. Exposures may be off from the modern day mercury-free versions of the PX 625 cells unless you have a technician rework the voltage required of the camera to use the newer cells accurately (difference of 1.3 to 1.5 volts). Oh yes, one last sign of the different era the FTb originates from is the lens that came with the camera, a rather large Canon FD 50mm f1.4 instead of the much smaller and lighter 50mm f1.8 or f2 variety normally seen with manual camera kits. This Canon 50mm f1.4 is even larger than the Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF lens I use to own or the manual focus Nikkor 50mm f1.4 I very briefly owned too. I have never cared for the original Canon FD mount and the finicky nature of mounting the lens. It is slow compared to the Nikon F mount system and only when the “new” FD mount came into use in the early 1980s did Canon finally match Nikon’s convenience. As for the quality of the lens, well, I had little interest in doing much testing with it. Perhaps someday I’ll round up all the normal focal length lenses I have access to and do some testing, but I’ll just say that there is nothing about the quality of the lens that calls attention to itself, which is a good thing. My use of the FTb and the lens is more for casual shooting use than for ultra picky optical quality leading to enlarged prints.
Subjectivism There is something about cameras such as the Canon FTb that stokes the romanticism in many of us, that a camera like the FTb brings us closer to the craft of photography than the modern day, gee whiz technological wonders like the Nikon F100. I pass along and paraphrase one well-known Nikon List contributor’s comment that the Nikon FM2n is the Zen of photography for him, perfection in letting the photographer control the picture-taking process and not the other way around. The same idealism could also be placed upon the FTb since it shares so much with the FM bodies (original 1970s bodies, not the most recent iteration). However, the Nikon List member comes from a long history of using manual cameras. Since my formative years as a serious photographer began with modern electronic cameras, with only passing use of old manual cameras in my youth, I have no romanticism for the good old days because my good old days were with the Nikon F70 and F90x. My manual focusing capability is dismal even with focusing aids such as the split prism and I much prefer the speed and snap of my F100. It focuses faster and more precisely than I’ll ever learn to do so manually. So, you’ll excuse the lack of enthusiasm I have for manual cameras. I have a liking for it for historical and other interests but more on that later. Does a manual camera get you any closer to the “craft” of photography? Objectively, no, why should it? Subjectively, well, this is where personal biases come into play and here is where all those comments from certain photographers belong. You know the ones where they state that they own the big Nikon F5, but they also own the FM2 manual camera for those days when they want to get back to basics. Because the FM2 is just…so…all of that and bag of chips AND is such a “photographer’s” camera over the “think it out for you and then do it for you” F5. Well, if you feel a need for a camera like the FM or FTb to turn your film crank, more power to you. And it does seem like some photographers feel the notion of manually turning that shutter speed dial and aperture ring on the lens makes them more bona-fide. Or that using the right thumb to flick the film advance lever “Zens” them into the creative process for photography, that these old classics are an end in itself instead of merely being the means to an end, which is a fine photograph. Folks, cameras are tools, nothing more nothing less, however, if you want to see the camera as being more than that, nothing wrong with it either, it’s your money and your tools to buy and use as you wish. Having a good frame of mind is an important part of the process and for many using the old manual cameras, this is what makes them happy, so who am I to argue? Am I being a crank? An unromantic boor who can see nothing of tradition and history, a person devoid of certain pleasures that go beyond the tool to see not just a camera but an extension of one’s self? Perhaps. However, let me confess that I do have a subjective tie to this old FTb. It has nothing to do with it being a fine photographic tool but everything to do with the fact that it belonged to my father, who in turn gave it to me when I expressed an interest in photography. He’s getting on in years and his eyesight is not what it was to allow him to use it effectively. Hell, even my eyes do not care for the microprism focusing of the FTb, why couldn’t Canon put in a split-prism focusing screen? My primary use for 35mm equipment is for social events where a fast handling camera like the F100 is the right tool in my hands for the type of photography I wish to accomplish. For personal use, I am going with the digital D100 most of the time. A slower handling camera like the FTb can work quite well for general or outdoor photography; however, I think I’m a left-brain type of photographer when it comes to my equipment choices. I choose the ones that facilitate my ability to deal with the subject and not worry much about technicalities. I don’t want to romanticize my equipment instead I try to romanticize the subject. To that end, digital works to satiate the impatient photographer in me wanting immediate feedback and the ability to edit very quickly after a shoot. Medium format, while not a fast handling system, satiates the desire to maximize quality for other shooting needs. The FTb will likely sit in my cabinet with infrequent use, just as the Konica S2 Auto and Yashica FX-3 do at this time. These are not cameras that I instinctively reach for when I want to be serious with my photography. Even for everyday shooting, I much prefer the Nikon D100 to the better-built and better-featured F100 film camera. These are the choices I’ve made, but every now and then, I’ll take one out and use it for some general shooting. Unfortunately, I do not seem to derive the same subjective pleasure as using my F100 or D100. Final Note Interestingly
enough, I noted that in some
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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What
comes to mind when you think of a camera that your father might have
(still) owned? For that matter, what comes to mind when you think
of an old, classic camera? For me, the same camera always comes to
mind, the Canon FTb.
The
FTb is all manual, needing a battery only for the match-needle metering.
As most mechanical cameras are, there is very little to their design
on an overt basis. However, just think of the precision required to
get those springs and levers just right so that one obtains accurate
shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/1000th of a second. No
need to rely on the constant charge from a battery to create an image,
just a bit of thinking from your grey matter for how to expose a scene.
Now
consider how many of today’s current middle-rank cameras offer two
very basic features that few serious photographers would not have
taken as standard a few decades ago; mirror lockup and a PC sync socket.
