Key Takeaways
New Pentax 17 movie digicam is not the guide physique that some traditionalists might have hoped for.
The half-frame design & computerized settings are off-putting for movie fanatics in search of guide management.
Pentax priced the essential point-and-shoot digicam at $500, which is costly for what it’s.
After I heard that Pentax was releasing a brand new movie digicam, a primary in virtually 20 years for the corporate, I used to be ecstatic. You see, I’ve been a photographer for over 10 years and realized the medium on movie. All of my undergraduate pictures courses had been taught with 35mm SLR cameras utilizing black and white movie, and I taught movie pictures throughout my graduate college years. Even in any case these years, I’m captivated with the advantages of studying pictures on movie.
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Sorry, millennials. Your aesthetic is classic now, however it’s again in fashion and a point-and-shoot is the right option to obtain it.
Whereas I don’t shoot analog as usually nowadays, I nonetheless have a delicate spot for analog and decide it up once in a while. The truth is, this yr, I’ve been doing so extra continuously. I’m not alone in coming again to movie, both. Analog pictures went out of vogue for some time when digital cameras got here round since digital was a lot cheaper and simpler. However there’s been a little bit of a resurgence previously few years, with extra folks within the delayed gratification and bodily qualities inherent to movie.
This resurgence has introduced a number of new movie cameras to the market previously few years, such because the Kodak H35. Pentax first introduced it was engaged on a brand new movie digicam again in 2022, and I’ve eagerly been awaiting particulars ever since. Sadly, it wasn’t what I hoped for.
Model Pentax
Battery CR2
Weight 10.2 oz
Lens HD PENTAX Lens 25mm (37mm in 35mm format) f/3.5
I had excessive hopes for the brand new Pentax movie digicam
However the fundamental options let me down
Pentax
Pentax is identical firm that makes one among my favourite movie cameras, the K1000. Should you aren’t aware of that digicam, it’s a fairly bare-bones however extremely sturdy, absolutely mechanical digicam that was (and is) extremely standard. There’s no autofocus and no auto publicity of any kind. Since Pentax made this iconic machine, I had excessive hopes that its new movie digicam would comply with within the footsteps of the K1000, no less than to a sure extent.
Nonetheless, Pentax didn’t take this method with its revitalization of the movie digicam. As a substitute, the Pentax 17 goes the way in which of the opposite new movie cameras from the previous few years. It’s largely a fundamental point-and-shoot digicam. It makes use of a built-in lens, which, based mostly on the offered pattern photographs, doesn’t look significantly high-quality, no less than to not the requirements that I hoped for.
However after I image a revival of analog pictures, I hope for guide settings that actually drive folks to decelerate and take into consideration what they’re doing, not simply level the digicam and snap away kind of as they might with digital.
My largest grip, although, isn’t the built-in lens. I can get behind a digicam that doesn’t require a separate lens. As a substitute, two options annoyed me probably the most: the half-frame design and the automated settings.
The Pentax 17 makes use of 35mm movie, however it’s constructed to reveal barely lower than half of that at a given time, with every picture measuring simply 17 x 24mm. The brand new digicam “produces vertical-format footage, with comparable ratios to these captured by smartphones, for seamless sharing on social media after the movie is developed and scans are produced by a movie lab,” Pentax mentioned in its press launch. Whereas I suppose I perceive eager to capitalize on gadgets folks presently use, I’m upset that that is the digicam I waited two years to listen to about, particularly since Kodak’s half-frame remains to be pretty new at this level.
My different grievance is the dearth of guide settings. The Pentax 17 gives seven completely different computerized modes for various lighting conditions. It’s extra superior than different current movie cameras in that it contains a metering sensor and routinely adjusts settings, versus a hard and fast shutter velocity and aperture. However there’s nonetheless no possibility for guide management. Additionally, to give attention to the Pentax 17, it’s a must to depend on the zone-focusing system, which makes use of six completely different zones. Which means there’s all the time some stage of guesswork in getting your photographs in focus.
Sure, computerized controls make movie pictures extra approachable and simpler for most individuals. However after I image a revival of analog pictures, I hope for guide settings that actually drive folks to decelerate and take into consideration what they’re doing, not simply level the digicam and snap away kind of as they might with digital.
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I purchased the top-selling disposable cameras from Amazon. See which provide the perfect worth and high quality after I examined them throughout an evening out in London.
The Pentax 17 has its place
However the worth retains it out of attain for a lot of
Pentax
I am not so snobby in the case of movie pictures that I don’t assume there’s a time and place for cameras just like the Pentax 17. I totally get pleasure from fundamental cameras like these on occasion as a option to give attention to enjoyable and fewer on the technical. However that is the place my third grievance with the Pentax 17 is available in. The brand new digicam is priced at $499.95. That’s extremely costly for a fundamental point-and-shoot digicam.
You possibly can simply decide up a good-condition Pentax K1000 with a lens for that very same worth and get the benefit of a higher-quality lens, extra management over your settings, and full-frame 35mm photographs. Or, you may get the Kodak H35 half-frame movie digicam for $45, granted it’s much less superior and contains a plastic physique in comparison with the magnesium alloy of the 17. Even nonetheless, $500 for a digicam that’s barely fancier than what’s normally categorised as a toy digicam is fairly absurd.
Past the shock on the excessive worth, I’m additionally irritated that this fashion of digicam appears to be all that movie digicam producers are releasing these days.
Past the shock on the excessive worth, I’m additionally irritated that this fashion of digicam appears to be all that movie digicam producers are releasing these days. These of us wanting barely extra superior, technical, or high-quality cameras are caught counting on the used marketplace for growing older cameras.
Now, Pentax has hinted that the 17 is the primary in a collection of latest analog cameras. So, I nonetheless hope we see a model new, extra superior movie digicam finally. Whether or not that occurs or unlikely relies on how properly the 17 does, and there’s additionally no trace as to the timetable for when extra cameras might come. For now, I suppose I’ll get pleasure from my vintage cameras and the occasional point-and-shoot for enjoyable.
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Sorry, millennials. Your aesthetic is classic now, however it’s again in fashion and a point-and-shoot is the right option to obtain it.