The Pentax 17 wasn’t the camera that I wanted, but it was the camera that I needed

A Pentax 17 film camera held in a hand outside.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but the film SLR that I found at a garage sale sat on a shelf for years before it became more than a paperweight. But the reason that I finally found the courage to load film into the dusty old camera from the 1970s is actually due to another camera: The Pentax 17.

The Pentax 17 launched in 2024 as the brand’s first film camera in more than 20 years. Pentax, however, has a long history of film cameras, including the Pentax K1000 that I picked up at a garage sale for a few bucks before neglecting it for a few years.