Ricoh Imaging has released more details of its forthcoming Pentax compact film camera project in a YouTube video with one of the designers.
The eight-minute-long video features designer TKO shedding more light on the project, which was revealed last year.
As previously reported on Kosmo Foto, the new camera will be a compact film camera with a manual film wind-on.
In the video, TKO gave further insight into Pentax’s plans and the feedback Ricoh had got from the wider film community:
- There was wide support for a new SLR camera inspired by the professional-level LX released in the 1980s, a new medium format camera and a “full mechanical SLR camera”.
- Pentax’s film camera revival will “start with a compact film model.
- The camera will have a fixed, non-interchangeable lens.
- The new camera will not be based on an existing design but will be “a completely new model”.
“We are making comparative research on all aspects of this model, including the camera body and lens, and assessing the data and technologies that are available to us in order to finalise specifications,” TKO said in the video.
He added: “Our goal is to develop a camera that younger photographers will enjoy – our development effort is focused on this goal. We want to make a camera that makes taking photos a joy and that’s a pleasure to carry around every day.
The video has much more detail on the decision to use a manual wind-on in the new camera, which is an unusual choice for compact camera – most autofocus compacts had motorised wind-on and rewind.
“We believe it’s this action that provides the joy and satisfaction of actually manipulating a film camera,” TKO said.
The designer also revealed how retired engineers had guided the current design team in building the mechanism, and that Ricoh had already taken “enormous time and trouble” to put the mechanism into the new camera.
“We wanted youngsters to experience this delightful mechanism and to enjoy an authentic camera mechanism,” he said.
TKO added that the mechanism could be used in a new mechanical SLR design, should Ricoh decide to build that aswell.
There is still no timeline for when the new camera will appear, but the video shows that Ricoh are certainly serious about bringing a new film camera out.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
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Thats nice of them to make it a joy – until now we have all hated taking photos.