Not the Pentax 17. Pentax launched the Pentax 17 half-frame film camera in June last year.
I handled one in a camera shop a while ago and couldn’t believe Pentax put a protruding screw-head exactly where you grip the camera with your right hand. You can see the screw-head in this photo.
Half-frame means that the frame inside the camera covers an area half of a 35mm frame.
The advantage is that you get twice as many shots on a roll of film. The disadvantage is that the quality drops because the area is smaller. And unless you turn the camera 90° when you shoot then everything will be in portrait orientation.
In terms of sharpness and ability to capture detail, digital overtook film years ago. So the fact that the quality is not going to be as good as a full 35mm film is not a reason for foregoing half-frame cameras.
Photographers shoot film for lots of reasons, including the ‘look’, which is different from digital.
Here’s a photo I took in Japan in March last year with another small film camera – the Minolta Freedom Escort.
A reason for not getting the Pentax 17 is the price – £499 – at a time when high quality secondhand cameras are available at a fraction of the price.
And the Pentax 17 uses zone focusing, which means you have to guesstimate the distance to the subject every time you want to take a photo. If I want to do that then I already have an Olympus XA2 that uses zone focusing, and you can read about it here.
And here is my Olympus XA2 camera with the clamshell closed and then open.
Rollei 35AF
At nearly twice the price of the Pentax 17 – £750 – Hong Kong based MiNT Camera launched the Rollei 35AF in the Autumn last year.
The camera is a reprise of the original line made by Rollei. The Rollei company still exists today, but it doesn’t make cameras, only photography accessories like filters, tripods, and studio lighting.
I guess MiNT must have a licence to produce the new camera.
The Rollei is tiny and it has autofocus, which the original Rollei models did not.
Were it not so expensive I would be tempted because it is so tiny, weighs just 242g, and would easily slip into a pocket.
New in 2025 – Analogue aF-1
Now there is a third film camera on the horizon for 2025.
Analogue is a film camera shop based in Amsterdam and they are also the makers of the aF-1, launching this summer.The retail price is €399 and they are offering a pre-launch
15% discount for early birds who pre-order.
The autofocus system on the Analogue The aF-1 is LiDAR with ToF.
LiDAR is a laser pulse that the camera sends out when you focus. The sensor measures the Time-of-Flight (ToF) that the laser beam takes to hit the subject and return. It is said to be a very quick way for a camera to attain focus.
And what does it have? It has a clamshell design like the Olympus XA-2. Here it is in the open, ready to shoot, position.
And would I be tempted? Again, not when I compare it to the film cameras (including the Olympus XA-2) available on the second hand market.
How many units do any of these manufacturers of new cameras have to sell in order to make the venture worthwhile?
There’s the research and development, the tooling, the materials, the assembly, the marketing, the distribution.
It makes you wonder.
And what advances could there be when the lenses in some of those older cameras are as good as they are. Here is a photo I shot with the Olympus XA2 on Kentmere 100 film in September 2023.
The tree is a Ginkgo biloba growing on Mill Road in Cambridge, looking like it has outgrown its surroundings.
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