We now know what the new Pentax half-frame film camera looks like! It’s the first 35mm film camera from a major manufacturer in over a decade.
PentaxRumors.com recently shared a photo of a camera that Ricoh Imaging has been teasing since early 2023 (analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…).
The photo doesn’t show the manual film advance Pentax leaned on in almost every teaser of the camera (analog.cafe/comments/8ub8). But there’s a lot that we can learn from it already.
The viewfinder confirms that it will be a half-frame camera, and the built-in flash is a nice touch. Many vintage half-frame cameras (analog.cafe/search?for=hal…) did not have a built-in flash, making them difficult to use in subdued light.
I’m happy to see a DOF calculator for better zone-focusing accuracy (you can brush up on it here: analog.cafe/r/how-to-zone-…).
The 25mm 𝒇3.5 lens is an approximately 35mm full-frame equivalent, so we can expect a wide angle of view and easy zone focusing with a larger DOF.
𝒇3.5 is a good max aperture for a camera like this; recall the new Ektar H35N, which is 𝒇8 (analog.cafe/r/kodak-ektar-…) — which is one of the widest-apertured half-frame cameras made in recent years.
Today, Ricoh Imaging (a brand that owns Pentax) has announced that its brand-new half-frame film camera will have its lens design based on the Pentax Espio Mini cameras: youtube.com/watch?v=xqRQTO…
This new camera (more about it here: analog.cafe/r/film-photogr…) will look and work differently from Espio Mini as it’ll have a manual film crank and no autofocus (instead, relying on the zone focusing system, which I explain here: analog.cafe/r/how-to-zone-…).
Dmitri
Dmitri edited on Apr 27, ‘24