Pentax 17 -film camera

Pentax 17 film camera - Dark Silver

Here is the cultural act of 2024 - in our opinion! Pentax has now announced a completely new film camera model, it has been several years since the previous one, if you don't count the Leica M6 reissue, for example.

This is a so-called half-cinema camera, meaning that a traditional roll of film goes in, but the camera takes double the number of images, meaning that a roll of 36 images will have 72 images! The image is exposed to the film sideways to half the size, meaning that if you want horizontal images, you have to turn the camera to a vertical position. This is also where the camera's name comes from, the surface area of the exposed film is about 24mm x 17mm.

Film has its own charm due to the limited number of frames and the expectation that comes with development. Film can also be a way to slow down in the hectic digital world. And when shooting in half-size, costs are reduced and the grain and nostalgic elements of film are further emphasized.

From the weight of half a kilo and the images, you can see that this is a mechanically high-quality camera. The top and bottom are machined from magnesium, and the body feels completely different in the hand than the plastic cameras of the 2000s. Functions such as focusing and film advance are handled manually and these have a great feel and feel, starting with the sound. Film loading has been made easy and is reliable.

The Pentax 17 is somewhat full of Ricoh and Pentax history: the film advance button is borrowed from the Pentax LX camera, the ISO dial from the Pentax SP, the flash and shutter release from the KP, the lens is a tuned version of the Espio Mini, the film advance lever from the Auto 110, and so on.

The aforementioned Espio Mini was a higher-quality Point&Shoot film camera in 1994 and the optics include HD multilayer-coated lenses. In film format, the focal length is approximately equivalent to a 35mm lens, meaning it is slightly wide-angle.

The lens has a 40.5 filter thread, meaning you can use a polarizing filter or color filters in black and white photography.

Manual focusing is made easier by the so-called zone focus, i.e. the distances marked in the images:

• The mountain is infinite for landscape photography
• Group photo about 3m
• Two people 1.7m
• Portrait 1.2m
• Dosage photo for Instagram 0.5m
• Macro 0.25m

The selected focus distance is also visible in the viewfinder, so you can always check it when taking a picture. And Pentax pays attention to details, the camera strap acts as a measuring device when taking close-ups, which means the depth of field is the smallest of all!

The viewfinder is in a completely different class than in basic paperbacks or compacts. The image is sharp and the image boundaries are marked with bright lines, and for close-ups there are other lines that take parallax errors into account, meaning framing is surprisingly accurate.

Although the camera has manual focus, it still includes accurate exposure metering, meaning you can focus on the content when shooting. You can program the film sensitivity into the camera yourself if you use push or pull development, and the camera also has a dial for exposure correction. There are several different exposure programs, which are divided separately for shooting with and without flash.

And yes, you can tear a page from the cardboard film package and stick it on the back of this camera to remind you which film is loaded at any given time.

Specifications:

• 25mm optics, i.e. the equivalent focal length of the images is approximately 37mm
• Aperture: f/3.5
• Compatible with cine film
• Manual focus, 6 different option areas marked
• Automatic exposure and multiple exposure programs
• Manual film advance and easy loading even for beginners
• Film sensitivity adjustment, exposure compensation
  
• Closest focus 24cm
• Place for wire trigger
• Albada Bright Frame Optical viewfinder, second frame for framing close-ups
• Shutter speeds 1/350 - 4S and bulb
• Built-in flash
  
• Size:137x104x195mm
• Weight: 535g
• Manufacturing material ABS plastic
• Power: 1x CR2 battery (included in the sales package)