Pentax 17 camera review: Shooting half-frame film is a lower stakes joy

The Pentax 17 feels special. As a new $500 film camera from a major brand, it’s unique simply for existing. But more than that, it embraces the joy and style of analog photography without slipping into kitsch. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had with a camera.

I spent ample time testing the Pentax 17 after its announcement, shooting on a road trip and even at a show at a local punk club, and I ran a handful of rolls of color (Kodak UltraMax 400, Portra 800) and black-and-white (Kodak Tri-X 400) film through it. I even tried getting funky with some very expired color film, including cross-processing a roll of decades-old E6 slides (positive film) to C41 color negatives. (Cross-processing is simpler than it sounds. You’re essentially just having a photo lab swap the chemicals they normally use, but it leads to unexpected results with the potential for wild color shifts.)

The results consistently impressed me, even when I leaned on the built-in flash for some low-light indoor photos. Images can be pretty sharp, even up close in macro mode and with the 37mm-equivalent lens shot wide open at its f/3.5 maximum aperture.

While I love getting nerdy and pixel-peeping shots from full-frame cameras with high-end lenses, I can acknowledge that sharpness and resolution don’t matter as much on a half-frame point-and-shoot film camera. You’re likely to view the scanned film images on small screens or uploaded to social media like Instagram, where pretty much anything can look fine. But the Pentax 17 does have a punch to its images that you’re not going to get as consistently with cheap film cameras like the $40 Kodak Ektar H35. 

The H35 is also a half-frame point-and-shoot, though it’s less than a tenth the price of the Pentax 17, but its focus-free lens means most subjects are going to look same-y, without any depth. The Pentax is a “fun” camera, but it’s still a much more serious image-making tool.

The Pentax 17 operates a lot like most analog cameras before it, with a manual advance lever, film rewind crank, and a simple yet bright viewfinder with frame lines for an approximation of your composition. There really aren’t many modern affordances given, aside from a CR2 battery hidden beneath the built-in grip that powers the camera and its partially automatic functions.

You can set the mode dial to Auto and let the camera take care of everything, locking the focus to cover most subjects one meter away or farther. But the Pentax 17 is most engaging, and yields the best results, when you take some control — selecting your focus range on the lens and choosing a preset exposure mode. The camera’s mode dial has color coding for modes with or without flash, and a simple bokeh option to ensure the lens is shot wide-open to get as much pleasing background blur as it can produce.

By manually setting one of six focusing ranges, you get to sample a bit of the “shoot from the hip” street photographer’s life, dancing with your subjects as you try to estimate how far they are from the camera to ensure focus. It’s a practice that gets you looking at the whole scene in front of you rather than squinting through a viewfinder, and there’s nothing like getting your film back to find you nailed the shot — or, by contrast, you got some unexpected and charming surprises.

As excellent as the Pentax 17 is, this method may turn off some enthusiasts who always want proper full-manual control (a camp I normally fall into, frankly). I’m used to being meticulous with my shots when using a film camera since each one costs money whether you’re sending your roll to a lab or developing yourself. But the Pentax 17’s half-frame format — with each roll able to capture up to 48 or 72 exposures instead of 24 or 36 — helped me relax a little and ease into the semi-automated exposure mode and preset zone ranges.

In exchange for a smaller image that doesn’t print or scan as large, shooting half-frame gives you a sense of low-stakes freedom. It was no longer such a big deal to take a chance on a quick snapshot that could be too dark or too blurry. Just point and shoot, hope for the best, and be delighted when the film comes back from the lab.

I have to concede that the Pentax 17’s simple modes are a perfect fit for this style of shooting, even if part of me always wishes for manual controls. And the vertical framing feels more akin to our default orientation when picking up a phone (the most casual of snapshot cameras).

The Pentax 17 has charm to it. From its compact size and solid-enough build quality to its quirky design, it could be a great companion to document your everyday life. It oozes a slightly eccentric style, and its casual, yet not too casual, approach to film photography brings a touch of magic to even the mundane.

Embracing the Pentax 17’s approach rewards you with lovely, timeless-looking shots. Sure, you can get used film cameras with more features for less money, like the Pentax K1000 and 50mm f/2 lens, which was my first film camera (though I think it cost me only $80 to $100 back in 2006). But you’re always rolling the dice with used cameras, especially on some models that are difficult or impossible to repair these days.

And of course, you can spend much more on a street photography camera with more features and better build quality, like a Leica M rangefinder (I imagine my old Leica M6 is feeling betrayed that I’ve fallen for a lowly Pentax). But the stakes are much lower when each photo has a built-in 50 percent discount and the results are just as fun.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge