Pentax 17 Review

AD/ANZEIGE: In this episode, Jules and I share our first impressions of the Pentax 17, one of the most anticipated cameras in the film community. Ever since Ricoh Imaging announced the Pentax Film Camera Project in December 2022, the film community waited for this pivotal moment. A newly introduced film camera tailored to today’s needs and produced with today’s manufacturing capabilities.

The anticipation now culminates in the launch of the Pentax 17, a 35mm half-frame camera with manual film transport, manual zone focusing and automatic exposure. The bright, large viewfinder lets you compose in portrait orientation - which is common for half-frame cameras but is also a deliberate choice as it matches today’s social media formats and how content is often consumed on a phone. So the 17 in Pentax 17 is derived from the 17x24mm dimensions of the final frames. The obvious side effect and benefit is that one regular 36-exposure film roll gives you 72 exposures which helps counter increasing film costs - just like it did in the 1960s when the half-frame format was originally introduced. We had reviewed the Olympus Pen from 1959 and the world’s first half-frame SLR camera, the Olympus Pen F from 1963, here on the channel before.

Back to the Pentax 17. When we started this YouTube channel about eight years ago, I would have never thought to see the launch of a brand new film camera. So I was truly excited about this camera and giving it a try. Pentax reached out to us asking whether we would like to give it a try and provide a first review. You can only imagine how excited I got about this opportunity. I took the camera with me on a trip to Mallorca shooting some Kodak Gold 200 and Ilford Delta 100. Jules and I also took it through its paces during a photowalk in Landsberg am Lech and Munich shooting some slide film. Let’s take a closer look at its features, the build quality, the images it produces and our personal impressions and findings.

Gear used:
Pentax 17

Films used:
Kodak Gold 200
Kodak Ultramax 400
Ilford Delta 100
Fuji Velvia 100

Films (except Fuji Velvia) scanned and developed by Film Speed Lab: https://filmspeedlab.com

References:
https://www.japancamerahunter.com/202...
https://www.lomography.de/magazine/28...

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