Pentax 17 digital camera overview: Taking pictures half-frame movie is a decrease stakes pleasure

The Pentax 17 feels particular. As a brand new $500 movie digital camera from a significant model, it’s distinctive merely for current. However greater than that, it embraces the enjoyment and elegance of analog pictures with out slipping into kitsch. It’s a few of the most enjoyable I’ve had with a digital camera.

I spent ample time testing the Pentax 17 after its announcement, taking pictures on a street journey and even at a present at an area punk membership, and I ran a handful of rolls of colour (Kodak UltraMax 400, Portra 800) and black-and-white (Kodak Tri-X 400) movie by it. I even tried getting funky with some very expired colour movie, together with cross-processing a roll of decades-old E6 slides (optimistic movie) to C41 colour negatives. (Cross-processing is easier than it sounds. You’re basically simply having a photograph lab swap the chemical substances they usually use, however it results in surprising outcomes with the potential for wild colour shifts.)

The outcomes constantly impressed me, even after I leaned on the built-in flash for some low-light indoor pictures. Pictures could be fairly sharp, even up shut in macro mode and with the 37mm-equivalent lens shot large open at its f/3.5 most aperture.

Whereas I like getting nerdy and pixel-peeping pictures from full-frame cameras with high-end lenses, I can acknowledge that sharpness and determination don’t matter as a lot on a half-frame point-and-shoot movie digital camera. You’re more likely to view the scanned movie photographs on small screens or uploaded to social media like Instagram, the place just about something can look effective. However the Pentax 17 does have a punch to its photographs that you just’re not going to get as constantly with low cost movie cameras just like the $40 Kodak Ektar H35. 

The H35 can be a half-frame point-and-shoot, although it’s lower than a tenth the value of the Pentax 17, however its focus-free lens means most topics are going to look same-y, with none depth. The Pentax is a “enjoyable” digital camera, however it’s nonetheless a way more critical image-making software.

The Pentax 17 operates lots like most analog cameras earlier than it, with a guide advance lever, movie rewind crank, and a easy but vibrant viewfinder with body strains for an approximation of your composition. There actually aren’t many trendy affordances given, except for a CR2 battery hidden beneath the built-in grip that powers the digital camera and its partially automated capabilities.

You possibly can set the mode dial to Auto and let the digital camera maintain every thing, locking the main target to cowl most topics one meter away or farther. However the Pentax 17 is most participating, and yields one of the best outcomes, whenever you take some management — deciding on your focus vary on the lens and selecting a preset publicity mode. The digital camera’s mode dial has colour coding for modes with or with out flash, and a easy bokeh choice to make sure the lens is shot wide-open to get as a lot pleasing background blur as it might probably produce.

By manually setting considered one of six focusing ranges, you get to pattern a little bit of the “shoot from the hip” road photographer’s life, dancing along with your topics as you attempt to estimate how far they’re from the digital camera to make sure focus. It’s a observe that will get you trying on the entire scene in entrance of you fairly than squinting by a viewfinder, and there’s nothing like getting your movie again to seek out you nailed the shot — or, against this, you bought some surprising and charming surprises.

As wonderful because the Pentax 17 is, this technique could flip off some lovers who all the time need correct full-manual management (a camp I usually fall into, frankly). I’m used to being meticulous with my pictures when utilizing a movie digital camera since each prices cash whether or not you’re sending your roll to a lab or growing your self. However the Pentax 17’s half-frame format — with every roll capable of seize as much as 48 or 72 exposures as a substitute of 24 or 36 — helped me calm down somewhat and ease into the semi-automated publicity mode and preset zone ranges.

In change for a smaller picture that doesn’t print or scan as giant, taking pictures half-frame offers you a way of low-stakes freedom. It was not such a giant deal to take an opportunity on a fast snapshot that might be too darkish or too blurry. Simply level and shoot, hope for one of the best, and be delighted when the movie comes again from the lab.

I’ve to concede that the Pentax 17’s easy modes are an ideal match for this model of taking pictures, even when a part of me all the time needs for guide controls. And the vertical framing feels extra akin to our default orientation when selecting up a telephone (essentially the most informal of snapshot cameras).

The Pentax 17 has attraction to it. From its compact dimension and solid-enough construct high quality to its quirky design, it might be an important companion to doc your on a regular basis life. It oozes a barely eccentric model, and its informal, but not too informal, method to movie pictures brings a contact of magic to even the mundane.

Embracing the Pentax 17’s method rewards you with beautiful, timeless-looking pictures. Positive, you will get used movie cameras with extra options for much less cash, just like the Pentax K1000 and 50mm f/2 lens, which was my first movie digital camera (although I feel it value me solely $80 to $100 again in 2006). However you’re all the time rolling the cube with used cameras, particularly on some fashions which might be troublesome or unattainable to restore lately.

And naturally, you may spend far more on a road pictures digital camera with extra options and higher construct high quality, like a Leica M rangefinder (I think about my previous Leica M6 is feeling betrayed that I’ve fallen for a lowly Pentax). However the stakes are a lot decrease when every photograph has a built-in 50 p.c low cost and the outcomes are simply as enjoyable.

Images by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge