Well, what do you know? Pentax, a Ricoh camera brand, also has a film camera. Not just any analog film camera, btw. The Pentax 17 is a half-frame camera that captures two 17 mm x 24 mm pictures within a single 35 mm format (36 mm x 24 mm) film frame. Like, how cool is that? OK. Maybe it is (cool) only if you are into analog, lo-fi photography.
The hardware isn’t as fancy as Lomography’s but hey, it is from a brand with a century-old history and has been making cameras for more than 7 decades. Anyhoo, the Pentax 17 produces vertical format pictures with an aspect ratio similar to those snapped by smartphones but with a distinctive image quality of film camera.
Inspired by the Pentax’s brand heritage, the Pentax 17 incorporates manual operations unique to film photography, including a selectable zone-focus system, manual film winding, manual film advance lever, and exposure compensation and ISO sensitivity adjustments—each with their own dials. It is as nostalgia as a camera can get and the best of all, they are functional.
The camera further touts a newly developed lens, a 25 mm F3.5 lens (equivalent to a 37mm lens in the 35mm format) treated to a multi-layer HD coating which is also found applied on Pentax SLR lenses. The lens is derived from the optics used in the renowned PENTAX Espio Mini, launched in 1994, and has been redesigned for the half-frame format.
It further features an Albada-type bright frame finder. The viewfinder also comes with a close-up visual field compensation frame to help you more easily compose close-up images. It is possible to check the zone marks directly through the viewfinder.
The Pentax 17 is what the film camera was about. It is clearly for serious film camera enthusiasts, well, camera enthusiasts who have the money to drop because the kit, which includes the Pentax 17 camera, a roll of Liford HP5 Plus 400 B&W film, a roll of Kodak UltraMax 400 Color film, two film processing coupons, will set you back at US$599.95.
Images: Ricoh.