Tag: Pentax

August 2026 Links

American Urban Life and the Influential Photographers Who Captured It — A documentary photography of urban life in America is hosted at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.

Exhibition Uncovers Historical Photos From a Century of US Deportation Campaigns ­— at the California Museum in Sacramento will be on view through January 10, 2027.

How Nolan used a modified Pentax 67 to make IMAX history with The Odyssey — 6×7 is close to IMAX size so the viewfinder is quite close, and thus makes for a good viewfinder to block shot on set.

Film

Kodak Verita 200: No Consumer Version of This Film Exists But I Shot It Anyway — Interesting. Not sure why Kodak is protecting these motion picture stocks ; even Vision 3 is not available unless you are a movie production which makes it hard for film packagers to resell.

Kodak Ektapan 100 Is a Smooth, Sharp, and Beautifully Detailed Film — aka TMax 100. This is not a new film but it’s good to revisit what make people chose it for Black and White photography.

The Contax G2 Hype is Warranted: This Camera Rocks — A review of that modern classic of a camera, the Contax G2. On the pricey side, not helped by the fact that some pop stars were spotted using one.

DIY

This Photographer Built a Rig that Shoots Trichrome Photos Faster Than You Can Blink — Interesting rig.

How a 20-Year-Old Has Spent 3 Years Building Panoramic Cameras by Hand — Panoramic cameras are specialty, and the most advanced ones are the X-Pan and the rotating lenses model like the WideluxX. The latter is being reinvented and costing a few thousands of euros, while the former commands even more on the used market and is becoming hard to repair.

July 2026 Links

Did you know that every Pixii camera can record B&W DNG files? (the story of how an engineering tool accidentally became Pixii’s most-loved feature) — The Pixii is an interesting camera on many aspects with some design choices I consider terrible (this is not one of them). I’d love to get my hands on one.

What Is the Difference Between F-Stops and T-Stops? — A clear explanation of T-stop vs f-stop.

The Best Tripod for Woodland Photography (Tested in Wind & Rain) — Some comparison of tripods for nature photography in the woodlands. Some applies to other uses.

The Insane Story of Nikon’s Cancelled DL Compact Cameras and Why it Deserves Another Chapter — The compact camera market got killed by the smartphones. And today smartphone image quality is junk on overall: priced to the bottom with computational-goo to fill the gaps while trying to number brag.

Film

Nikon F6: and so it goes — About the Nikon F6.

Running on Film with the Hasselblad XPan — Editorial shoot on X-Pan.

Nikon F3 – Camera Review — A 2016 review of the Nikon F3.

I Shot a Rare Film Emulsion That Sold for $5,000 — Beyond the totally clickbait headline, this is about shooting the discontinued Fujifilm FP100c peel apart on a Polaroid 180, and using the negatives.

Asahi Optical Historical Club: A brief history of the Asahi Optical Corporation — Presented without comments. A reprint of a 2002 article.

Repairs

Sigma 45mm f/2.8 Lens Repair & Analysis — Repairing a Sigma 45mm f/2.8 lens.

DIY

reFrame camera — an experimental camera with a color ePaper display. You can build one yourself.

News: Sony wants to buy Tamron

Apparently Sony wants to buy Tamron (Imaging Resource). Tamron confirmed a JP¥200 Billions offer from Sony to buy them. That’s about CA$1.76 Billions. Their statement say they are looking at it. Sony already owns about 15% of Tamron.

The question is whether this would mean the end of third-pary lenses for other than Sony. The claim is that Sony wants to protect Tamron, with whom they have a partnership, against some other investors, that have recently become a larger shareholder than Sony.

DPReview has a longer analysis, mentioning other business from Tamron that Sony competes in, and the fact that while Tamron is the OEM for some Nikon lenses, and how some lenses are only available in Sony E-mount or with better pricing. And given that Canon and Nikon have been a bit restrictive on third-party lenses (R and Z mount respectively), it wouldn’t be a surprising move post-acquisition, if it ever happened, to stop making lenses for these.

In comparison, in 2011, Hoya sold the Pentax camera business to Ricoh Imaging for about JP¥10 Billions.

Question on the Pentax 17 future

As Kosmo Photo reports that the main designer left Pentax, people are questioning the Pentax 17 future, or more realistically future Pentax film cameras.

Ricoh Imaging has said the Pentax Film Project – which led to the release of the Pentax 17 last summer – is now on hold while it investigates whether there is demand for further new film models.

If the main person behind the Pentax 17, driving the effort of film camera design, left Pentax, is there a possible future for further film cameras?

In the run-up to its release, Ricoh Imaging had said that it was investigating a raft of camera releases that could include a film SLR in due course.

I’m still not convinced that the Pentax 17 is for me. I would love to give it a try, but if I don’t enjoy shooting it, what’s the point? What I feel I might not like with the Pentax 17 is both the scale focusing and the lack of control on the exposure in general. On the other hand what I do like as a differentiator is the half frame vertical aspect ratio (but not its marketing). I do understand the constraints in the design and Pentax commitment, and this is why I hoped that they would develop further film cameras.

My ideal film camera design might be a difficult one in the current market. If it’s a reflex, a choice of mount might need to prevail to have an interchangeable lens camera. If not a reflex, it probably would have to be a fixed lens and have to be a rangefinder; otherwise a coupled rangefinder might mean Leica M mount, which mean relatively expensive glass. It’s one thing to build a camera, it’s another to build a lens system, or rely on out of production lenses. Right now film photography is on borrowed time.

Previously: Pentax 17, Reflex, a new 35mm film camera design

Pentax 17

I previously mentioned the Pentax film renaissance. Today Pentax announced the Pentax 17 (via DPReview).

This gives the details we didn’t previously have.

It’s a vertical half frame (17 mm wide, 24 mm tall) 35mm millimeter compact camera, with a manual focus fixed prime lens. It has program exposure with a few modes, and built-in flash with sync at 1/125. It will be priced at US$499.95, to be available in late (aren’t we already in the second half?) June 2024.

The manual focusing is zone based, reminiscent of non auto-focus compact cameras, and the viewfinder is parallax corrected, and centered on the lens in the middle of the camera. This is neither a reflex (through the lens) nor a rangefinder.

The body construction has metal, i.e. it’s not a cheap plastic blob. The leaf shutter goes from 4 sec to 1/350 sec, with also a bulb mode. The lens is a fixed 25mm (37mm equivalent) with f/3.5 aperture closed down to a max of f/16. Film advance is mechanic with a lever, so is ISO setting (no DX). The camera uses a CR2 battery for the metering and the flash.

The half frame allow 48 and 72 shots on 24 and 36 exp rolls respectively. If you want to shoot in landscape mode, just flip the camera.

This camera could totally be from the late 1970s, minus a couple of things. According to Ricoh-Pentax, the lens is based on the 1994 Pentax Espio Mini, but using the same attribute as was used on the 1962 RICOH Auto Half

At US$500 I am not sure whether this is right-priced or not.

Link: Pentax film renaissance

DPReview has an interview with the team behind Pentax upcoming film camera:

Everything analog is suddenly cool again, and photography is no exception: There’s an incredible renaissance happening in film photography, led by a generation who grew up never knowing anything other than digital cameras.

Yes. There is room for a few new film cameras that produce quality images (that’s a stab at Lomography). While things are moving in the world of film supplies, not always to the taste of aficionados, the stock of used film camera is just getting older. And older mean breakage, difficult to repair.

The first announcement came in December 2022, but in April 2024, the publication date of the interview, we have a bit more detail. It will be a half frame 35mm camera, vertical, in a compact format. But every other details remain elusive, including exposure modes.

To be continued…

Pentax K-1 full frame DSLR

FINALLY, Pentax (Ricoh) announce a full frame DSLR.

Petapixel announcement:

Pentax is finally in the full frame DSLR game. Ricoh today announced the new Pentax K-1, a camera that it claims “offers innovations not available in any other DSLR.”

Not sure about the “first in a DSLR” gimmicks though, nothing ground breaking from this camera except that it takes K-Mount — a decade later. As mentioned on twitter by @lamlux, the innovation is HDR on knob….

WEX photographic hands-on review:

On paper, the K-1 continues the long-held Pentax tradition of delivering an excellent and well-rounded feature set at a reasonable price — very reasonable when you consider the asking prices of similar models at launch.

We’ll see.

Pentax Q

Pentax just announced the Pentax Q, a mirror-less camera with interchangeable lenses and a small sensor of 1/2.3″. There will be 5 lenses available.

As usual, DPReview has a preview.

Just a few comments after reading the specs and the preview:

  • Small sensor. I already find the m4/3 to be noisy due to its size. 1/2.3″ is significantly smaller and the quality will likely converge to a compact: lot of noise at higher ISO.
  • Barely smaller than the Sony NEX (or a micro 4/3), according to the picture on DPReview, despite a much smaller sensor.

Also the lenses will include a “standard” prime (kit) 48mm equivalent, “standard” zoom ($300), a fisheye with manual focus and fixed aperture f5.6 ($129) and for less than $100, two “toy” lenses, one wide (28mm equiv.), one (100mm equiv.) telephoto whose image look will remind of the Diana or Lomo.

At $800 with the prime lens, I don’t really see where the Pentax Q fits in the market. That reminds me of the Pentax Auto 110 film SLR.