Pentax has just taken the wraps off a new film camera - its first for 20 years. The new Pentax 17 has taken the analog community by storm today for various reasons, but I'm here to give you the low-down on all the Easter eggs hidden in the design of this half-frame camera. Borrowing controls and labels from Pentax and Ricoh models from yesteryear - the Pentax 17 is a trip down memory lane for the camera buff.
So let's scroll around the camera to see what Pentax took, reproduced and borrowed from cameras of yesteryear to make the new half-frame compact…
So I'm sure you can agree the Pentax 17 mixes the old with the news and does somehow look like an "old-new stock" camera from the 80s, but that's a design choice as most of the items on this new camera we (or some of us at least) have seen before! It is Pentax's first-ever half-frame camera - but the inspiration for this partly comes from Ricoh (Pentax' owner since 2011), who made the Ricoh Auto-Half film camera from the early 1960s, and which gave the designers the idea of using a 25mm lens.
Let's start with the top of the camera…
Let's go from right to left starting with the manual rewind assembly, which was used on the Pentax LX professional SLR - which was the company's 35mm flagship from 1980-2001. The main viewfinder, meanwhile, was used on the Pentax K-30 DSLR - launched in 2012. The shutter button is taken on the brand new Pentax KP DSLR that you can still buy to day, and the tiny film advance lever is from the Pentax Auto 110 - a subminiature film camera with interchangeable lenses that was first introduced in 1978.
Some of you might also recognize that shiny colorway that's a mixture of gold and silver on the metal top-plate well that was also used on the 75-year special edition of the Pentax LX Titan.
So that's five Easter Eggs tucked away on the top-plate alone!
Taking a look at the front of the Pentax 17, the grip is very much designed for the Pentax 17 its grip texture has been seen on the Pentax DA WR lenses, its font is taken from the legendary Pentax 67 medium format SLR, and that funky lens design with its distant scale focusing has also been seen on the 1984 Pentax UC-1 (or Pentax Espio Mini as it was known outside of North America). And finally to top things off its flash unit shares its DNA from the flash unit of the Pentax KP.
It's important to note that while all of these items share history with historic products they have all been redeveloped for the Pentax 17 and are newly made items from old designs, not from old products to make a new one. Pentax made the point in its launch, that unlike similar vintage cameras you can pick up secondhand - this one comes with a warranty, and with spare parts available if the camera breaks.
It's a very interesting camera, that does have a deep-rooted history within the Pentax brand and it will be very interesting to see everyone's reactions as more and more images get developed from this brand-new film camera.
