Pentax 17

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Pentax 17 image by Jerzy Jablonski (Image rights)

The Pentax 17 is a half-frame compact 35mm camera released in June 2024, the first new film camera for some years made under the Pentax brand (now owned for photographic uses by Ricoh) and also the first half-frame 35mm Pentax camera, though Ricoh have made some. It is the first outcome of the Pentax Film Camera Project, begun late in 2022 for this very purpose. Young designers and engineers at Ricoh, who had never worked on film cameras, were able to draw on the expertise of older Ricoh and Pentax personnel. The camera is designed to appeal to the current vogue for traditional cameras, with several old-school features. Thus for example, it has a fixed 25mm f/3.5 triplet lens, with scale focus. This is a moderate wide-angle lens for the format. It is marked with separate focus scales in metres and feet below the barrel, and a distance-symbol scale above. The focus is set to one of six fixed distances on the scale, the shortest being 0.25m. Although the scale setting is manual, the lens itself is electrically moved to the set position when the shutter button is pressed. This has led to speculation that a future Pentax film camera may have auto-focus. The lens has a 40.5mm filter thread. The camera also has lever-wind film advance and a folding crank for rewinding. It has an easy-load mechanism. There is a pocket on the rear to hold the card end of a film-box, by way of a film-type reminder.

The camera has seven exposure programme modes on a dial by the shutter button, including a straightforward Full Auto, Bulb shutter mode, a slow-synch flash mode, and a 'Bokeh' mode; aperture-priority at full aperture (though perhaps f/3.5 does not give much scope for 'bokeh'). The shutter is a leaf shutter with speeds between 1/350 and 4 seconds, plus 'B', and the lens stops down to f/16. Both the aperture and shutter speeds are controlled by AE modes, not manually: there is no manual-exposure mode. The film speed is set on a dial around the rewind crank, between ISO 50 and 3200; the camera does not use DX codes. Next to this on the left of the top plate is a separate exposure-compensation dial, with a range +/- two stops in third-stop steps. In the centre is a bright-frame viewfinder, naturally in portrait orientation for the half-frame format, and set in a raised black-finished surround, perhaps designed to recall a pentaprism.

There is a small built-in flash (Guide Number 6m at ISO 100). Some of the exposure modes include auto flash, and others specify no flash. It can take remote shutter release CS-205 which uses a 2.5mm plug.

The top and bottom plates are magnesium alloy (the announcement does not mention the rest of the body, which is presumably plastic).

The camera measures 127(w) x 78(h) x 52mm(d) and weighs 290g without film or a battery. The battery is a CR2. Pentax estimates this lasts for just ten rolls of film, though this is based on using the flash in half of the exposures. At launch, the camera is priced at 500 UK pounds at the Pentax Europe site; American sites price it at 500 dollars.

Frontal view image by Neal Wellons (Image rights)

Specifications

• Year of launch: 2024
• Manufacturer: Pentax
• Type: Half frame Point and Shoot camera
• Lens: Pentax HD 25mm f/3.5
• Film type: 35mm film with speeds of 50 to 3200 ISO
• Metering element: silicon photo cell.
• Metering range: 2.5 to 16.5 EV
• Focusing: Zone Focusing
• Programs: Auto, Standard (flash off), Slow speed, Bokeh (max aperture priority), Bulb, Daylight sync flash, slow-speed sync flash
• Flash: Built-in, Guide number 6, red eye reduction
• Shutter: Focal plane shutter with speeds from 4s to 1/350 sec. B
• Film advance: manual
• Power: 1x 3v CR2 battery lithium battery
• Dimensions: approx 127 × 78 × 52mm
• Weight: 290g (without battery)

Links

• Pentax 17 at Pentax Europe
• Announcement at DPReview
• Official announcement at Ricoh Imaging website