Page 1 of 1

Canon FTb SLR from 1973

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 1:17 pm
by Niner
I've had this one for a while. It's pretty much all mechanical...with the exception of the light meter. The only problem is the need for a 625 mercury cell for the in camera light meter which isn't made any longer because of the mercury. The equivalent dosen't do the job in my camera. The meter is a dead duck. This is a problem that isn't worth paying money to fix. This Canon FTb was one of the last of the model line and has the later upgraded features....like the shutter speed showing in the view window in the bottom left corner and a rubber cover on the end of the film advance. In it's day it was considered "advanced amateur".

However, I recently got a Sekonic L208 light meter and went out to test both the meter and the camera.
Well... seems the camera is still working even though it's internal light meter isn't. On the other hand it was a really bright day and when using the light meter in reflective mode on a scenic shot it was giving readings that turned out to be underexposed by a couple of stops. This was also true for a twin lens reflex I also took along.

But... next time I'll try the ambient reading more and try to use a little more common sense as to what I see the meter telling me. Later in the day, after the light had softened, I tried the meter against a camera meter in a Pentax K1000 that I knew was still good. I was getting the same readings in reflective light but the numbers looked more realistic than earlier in the bright sun of late morning.