Pentax: Two new compact film cameras planned - Pentax 17 announced June 2024

Disconnekt

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Looks like a bigger Auto 110 & Fuji gw690 II styled grip
 

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loccdor

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It peaks my interest. But might be a hard sell as there are a lot of full frame cameras similarly sized. Maybe if the lens is great.
 

Cholentpot

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loccdor said:
It peaks my interest. But might be a hard sell as there are a lot of full frame cameras similarly sized. Maybe if the lens is great.
Click to expand...

Ultra compact isn't the sell of half-frame. And my my that is a sweet looking camera, it looks about the same size as my Sure Shot Multi Tele which has a half frame mode. It doesn't look much bigger than a Pen F. I wonder if they would make an SLR version of this if it proves to be popular.

Only thing looking a bit off? Cheap? Is the lens, HD Traditional? What?
 

MattKing

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loccdor

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loccdor

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Cholentpot said:
Only thing looking a bit off? Cheap? Is the lens, HD Traditional? What?
Click to expand...

If they didn't over-economize the lens it should be sharper than the half-frame lenses of decades past. They have gotten a lot better at optimizing glass in recent times.
 

4season

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Seems like a big grip for a camera which probably doesn't need a hefty battery.
 

xkaes

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Unless it has something special, I can't image it doing very well. Sure, half-frame saves film, but they should also save space. The Ricoh AutoHalf EF & EF2 both had a 25mm lens & a motor drive & a flash and were half the size of this "puppy".
 

cmacd123

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xkaes said:
Sure, half-frame saves film, but they should also save space. The Ricoh AutoHalf EF & EF2 both had a 25mm lens & a motor drive & a flash and were half the size of this "puppy".
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One of the criteria that they were aiming at was the the Camera have a Manual lever wind, as the surveys they did suggested that the tactile sense of using film - and having it move - was part of the appeal.

the flash looks to be more fully integrated in the photo of the new camera. the only photo I could find on the web of the EF looks like the flash was glued onto the camera as an afterthough.

I actually carried an auto half in my briefcase for many years. I found that with 400ASA colour Negative and typical office lighting (bright) the average shot was (just) in the range of the Camera. I am sure that the Auto Half weighs more than they were aiming for.
 

eli griggs

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While they're issuing new analog cameras, it'd be nice if they'd install a wind and rewind bottom that would keep the last position of the roll before and the one after that one so a colour roll, for example could be replaced with a new roll for several shots and then rewound to a start position and the previous roll, when reinserted, winds back to the last position plus one frame to continue shooting in colour.

I've never owned, that I can remember, a half frame 135 camera, but would not mind have no one to check the format out, as a daily carry.
 

xkaes

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I'm sure the new Pentax will be lighter that older half-frame cameras due to the electronics. As to manual wind/rewind. I just assumed that that HUGE grip contained the film advance motor and the battery (for the motor and flash and ......

If they went for manual film advance, the camera should be half the size of that pictured.
 

xkaes

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There are several cameras with motorized film advance/rewind that allow the leader to remain outside of the cassette after a rewind -- for this and other reasons. One, the Maxxum 5, is great in that regard, but I would doubt that Pentax would add that feature. Would be nice.
 

brbo

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I guess no designer was invited to the "17" project. Or they just want to take the crown of the ugliest half-frame camera from Samurai?

I'm still interested, but if that is the final shape and form of the camera I almost hope it will be expensive so I won't be tempted.
 

ic-racer

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Should be a good seller among film users. Not every film user wants to spend their time mucking around with old cameras. All film cameras are old. Nikon F6 introduced in 2004; 20 years ago.
 

xkaes

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I share the sentiment. I've got to assume that a camera that large has a reason for being that big. The "leaks" said it would be compact -- which it isn't -- and that it would come out this summer -- which is almost here. We'll have to wait and see what that is. Maybe Sharan can come out with a Minox-sized version of the 17.

http://www.subclub.org/shop/sharan.htm

 

brbo

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All they needed to do was copy Pen W or Ricoh Caddy and add AE and AF. They keep saying that their market research showed the most desired feature was "manual film advance (with lever)" so I wonder what kind of weirdos did their market research pick up and what other necessary "features" did they propose. Big and fugly must have been two of them.

Well, at least they put the viewfinder in the same vertical axis as the lens so the influencers will only need to sort out the issue of vertical parallax correction when taking the picture of their lunch at 25cm. I also like the idea behind double distance scale (in m and ft), it seems that the user will be able to chose between metric and imperial scale.
 

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Certainly not a photogenic camera. I hope it is some kind of proof-of-concept model - including the ridiculous writing around the lens.
I am generally skeptical about the 3 element lenses but I with modern tech and high ambitions I guess it should be possible to make a decent one - I hope so.
 

xkaes

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Nitroplait said:
I am generally skeptical about the 3 element lenses but I with modern tech and high ambitions I guess it should be possible to make a decent one - I hope so.
Click to expand...

If they hope to attract buyers they better not skimp on the lens. It's only a f3.5 lens. One extra, tiny piece of glass can't cost that much more
 

Pioneer

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xkaes said:
If they hope to attract buyers they better not skimp on the lens. It's only a f3.5 lens. One extra, tiny piece of glass can't cost that much more
Click to expand...

Typically I would agree with you but have you seen what the Lomo crowd are buying regularly? I really don't think that Pentax is aiming at us right now.
 

cmacd123

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