Rolling Reviews: Pentax 17, film cameras back from the dead?

It's been a while since I bought my last film camera. In fact so long that it took me a while to remember what my last film camera actually was. Back in the late 90s I was shooting quite a lot of content for both my own magazine, Shred Magazine and Downhill Mountain Bike Mag Dirt Magazine. Nearly all of this was shot on colour transparency (kids ask your parents), my cameras of choice back then were a Canon T90 and a little Pentax P30 but digital got invented, magazines got digitised and the T90 went in a box - probably still in my attic.

Me holding the Pentax 17 shot from a retro point and shoot using Kodak Colourplus film

2024 and Pentax brings out a new film camera, aside from disposable cameras this is probably the only mainstream film camera that has been released this millennium and that is either quite an achievement or plain stupid. Always a fan of stupidity I signed myself up and got one on order - in fact, I actually traded in one of the many digital cameras that I had kicking about to pay for it. Let's talk about value, a Pentax 17 is £500, that's not a load of money for a decent camera but given you can probably buy a film SLR on ebay for £80 why would you seek to pay a fair chunk more for a 17?

scanned at the photo lab with no retouch, shot using Pentax 17 on Kodak Porta 400 film

Firstly, I should point out that whilst film SLR prices are fairly low the cost of film point a shoot cameras has gone ballistic. Little Olympus 35mm film cameras are regularly selling for over £300 on eBay and these are realistically closer to the end of their lives than the start. These little point and shoot cameras will take your now pretty expensive rolls of 35mm film and you can enjoy the vibe of film photography, the results will be better than a disposable camera but really you can't do much else.

The 17 fills the gaps. First up, the 17 takes a "half frame" so it squeezes two 17mm photos into the 35mm film frame, you're shooting portrait and then you have to turn the camera to shoot landscape. This means you get twice as many shots per film, 72 on a 36 roll of film or 48 on a 24 roll - this means great value from each roll of film, you'd probably save the cost of the camera from film savings pretty quickly. I only had 36 exposure film and this can be quite annoying if you're keen to get a film shot and developed but it does allow you to worry less about trying to get the perfect shot and experiment, it also means you can carry less film on your travels.

Scanned at the lab, shot on Pentax 17 on Kodak Porta 400

Secondly, the 17 has some level of manual adjustment, It's not an auto focus camera but it effectively is if you put it in "auto" mode. It pulls out the aperture to keep pretty much everything in focus and does the job of working out an exposure that looks ok. You get some neat little zone focus modes on the lens which allow you to configure the camera based on how far from your subject matter you're stood. This works surprisingly well to achieve an aperture that suits your creative pursuit, you can also see which mode you're in through the lens - a handy reminder to move the ring when you go from shooting epic landscapes to close up portraits or macro photography. You also have some different modes on the camera to engage the flash or close up Macro photography. Again it's not like an SLR, you can't adjust everything but there's enough adjustment to nudge yourself into thinking creatively and it's a massive step forward from point and shoot. The lens is a fixed length, it's 25mm but in reality because of the half frame you're getting something like a 37mm lens if it was a regular camera. this makes it pretty perfect for street style photography.

Below is a mixture of shots, just straight from the lab with no editing all using Kodak Porta400 film which is quite grainy as it's a fast film but no flash required and it copes well in a variety of uses. I was pretty bad at adjusting the focal depth but it still did ok.

Finally, and my favourite part about the Pentax 17 is it's genuinely a lovely thing. It's made of a combination of plastic and magnesium so it's really light but the metal switches and case give it a sense of good quality. It's easy to keep in a pocket, I rode with it in my pocket every day in the recent Malle Rally and this allowed me to get shots from the seat of my motorcycle in all manner of remote places, it takes the bonus of a phone - it's easy to use and right there when you need it, but adds in some charm, some of the magic of waiting for your results but is also pretty forgiving. From my whole first roll of film there was maybe one or two bad photos and it had been a while since i'd shot film.

So there it is, a fairly non technical write up but dive onto youtube if you want more detailed tech. Would I recommend it? Yes I would. Will I keep using it? Absolutely! Part of the creation of Glory Days Mag was to shoot more film, write more features and explore some creativity and the Pentax 17 ticks that box.

If I didn't want to go film but wanted something similar? I'd probably be looking at Ricoh GRIII or if you have the cash a Fuji X or if you really want to dream big then I'd love a GFx but that's for further down the road.

Is it better than just shooting with your phone? Taking time to think about photography, maybe leaving the phone at home, and enjoying it is definitely better - but sometimes opportunity is the master of a great photo and in 2025 you can't really beat a phone for being right there in your hand all of the time - even for reading magazines!