Canon FT QL

I recently used my Canon FT QL ("quick load"). It's a robust SLR with an FL / FD lens mount and a reasonable TTL light meter. I mounted the FT with a Canon FD 35mm f/3.5 lens. As always this isn't a technical review but if you'd like more information here is the manual.

Here are the things I like and dislike about the FT:

What I like:

• Convenient shutter release lock under the shutter release button
• Good shutter speeds from B to 1/1000 & X setting for flash sync of 1/60
• Quick load mechanism that eliminates / minimizes film mis-loading
• Convenient battery check switch
• Wide range of affordable / high quality lenses

What I dislike:

• Loud shutter slap so the camera is not stealthy 
• Cold shoe versus hotshoe
• Metering lever is next to the lens and somewhat awkward to use
• The lens stops down when the meter lever is activated so the viewfinder darkens making it hard to see the light meter needle in the viewfinder
• The light meter needle is very small so somewhat difficult to see in darker settings
• requires a 1.3V battery for the light meter which are not readily available
• The FT is heavy

Even with the camera's negative features I enjoy using the FT QL. My version is clean & I have a good range of FD lenses. Also, even though the camera uses a 1.3v battery I used a standard 1.5v button battery successfully. The light meter reads hot, so I simply adjusted the aperture by a stop whenever I used the meter. This seemed to work OK. The rest of the time I simply used sunny 16.

Here are a few images from a recent shoot using Fujifilm 200 and home developed with CineStill C-41.