One Year with the Pentax 17

A year has passed since the Pentax 17 became my daily companion. I carry it with me every day – on walks through the city, on trips, or when meeting friends. That’s plenty of time to really get to know this camera, so I’d like to treat you to a little introduction here.

When you pick up the Pentax 17, the first thing you notice is how unusually light it is. And indeed, it weighs just 290 g without film and battery. The battery compartment on the right front side makes the camera rest comfortably in your hand, and you never feel like it’s about to slip away. The front of the camera is covered in leather, but the back is not. This means it’s not exactly a treat for the thumb. At first, I strongly felt that I was holding nothing more than a plastic camera. On closer inspection, however, the base and the top part of the camera appear to be metallic, which adds to the overall impression of very good build quality.

The Pentax 17 is a half-frame camera. The big advantage: you get 72 shots out of a 36-exposure roll. Each individual image therefore takes up less space on the film, which goes hand in hand with each individual grain taking up more space in the image. In practice, this means that the same film looks grainier compared to 35mm full-frame. That doesn’t change the fact that I still choose my film depending on the project, season, or lighting conditions, and that the decision of how much grain I want is entirely mine. Fortunately, there are very fine-grained films. As for film sensitivity, for everyday use with an always-at-hand camera, I currently tend towards ISO 400 or higher.

I use the camera in P mode without flash 90% of the time. The advantage over A mode is that zone focus is used – which is not the case in A mode. Loading the film is also very simple. The film leader just needs to sit at the level of a red mark. Close the back and keep firing the shutter until the frame counter shows a 0. The counter is very small and hard for me to read – but then again, the camera’s target audience is considerably younger. Taking photos itself is then very simple: estimate the distance and set it on the zone focus, line up the subject in the viewfinder within the frame markings, and press the shutter. Done.

The modes besides A and P mode are for exceptional cases. They apply a different weighting to the calculated exposure time or aperture. In Moon mode, the exposure time is extended somewhat. This mode is therefore well suited for when it’s already getting a bit dim. It is also available with flash activated. Bokeh mode, on the other hand, opens the aperture a little more and shortens the exposure time at the same time, so the background appears blurrier. Handy for portraits. B mode keeps the shutter open for as long as you hold down the shutter button. This enables long exposures, which work even better with a cable release. I didn’t buy the original Pentax cable release but got myself a different model that works very well. I think the other dials and buttons are pretty much self-explanatory.

One special feature I’d like to touch on: macro mode. For this, I set the zone focus system to “Macro” and determine the correct distance using the included hand strap. This works surprisingly well in practice and delivers interesting results.

Conclusion

Taking photos with the Pentax 17 is really a lot of fun because the barrier to entry is so low. I don’t need to know anything about aperture, exposure time, or ISO, and can still be creative. Thanks to TKO, the designer of the camera. It’s also great for street photography. Pre-select the zone focus, then wait for the right subject. Once you spot the subject, just press the shutter. Really fast. Due to the relatively high degree of automation and the half-frame format, there are of course limits. The Pentax 17 focuses on a specific area of photography, and it does its job there very well. Let’s see if we’ll ever see a Pentax 35.

In my shop you can find photos taken with the Pentax 17. Maybe you’ll like them. :)