The new Pentax film compact camera will be launched soon and will be a half-frame model with zone focusing, according to new YouTube video released on Friday (1 March).
The video feature Pentax designer TKO, previously seen in a video interview for the Japanese magazine Barfout! in 2023, giving new details on the forthcoming camera.
TKO said the camera was designed to be a model “that allows younger photographers to fully enjoy taking photos as they enter the world of film photography”.
In the video, TKO confirmed the new compact camera will be a half-frame model.
“First of all, the camera is basically designed for vertical-format photos,” he said. “It provides a vertical format image when you look into the viewfinder, and the basic format of image framing is also vertical.”
He said the decision to launch a half-frame camera was partly inspired by the ubiquity of smartphones – TKO said the majority of people shoot in vertical format with their phones, and the format is easier to share on social media.
TKO also said cost of film was another factor. “Compared with the peak of film photography, the price of film is much higher today. This is a very difficult hurdle to overcome in enjoying analogue photography, due to the limited number of photos that can be captured on a single roll of film. The high running costs., including that of development, are also a big issue.”
A half-frame camera, of course, doubles the number of images which can be captured on a roll of film – 48 on a 24-frame roll, or 72 on a 36-frame roll.
As the cost of film – especially colour film – spiralled over the course of the Covid pandemic, some cheaper camera models have appeared in half-frame format, including the very successful Kodak Ektar H35N.
TKO confirmed that the new model would be the first time Pentax had released a half-frame model in its history.
Other details of features expected in the new camera:
- The camera will feature an electronic shutter which has been customised for the new model
- It will feature automatic control of both shutter speeds and apertures
- A control dial will allow certain shooting modes to be selected
- The camera will use zone focusing, like the Lomo LC-A and Olympus Trip 35
- The selected zone will be viewable in the camera’s viewfinder
- The new camera will have a traditional film winding mechanism
- Film rewind will also be manual
TKO also said the new camera’s lens draws inspiration from two previous models; the Ricoh Auto Half camera produced by Ricoh in the 1960s and 70s, and the optical design of the Espio Mini, a fixed focal range compact camera released by Pentax in the 1990s.
The video is the most detailed release yet on the new camera, which was first announced towards the end of 2022.
In December, an interview with Barfout! fuelled speculation that the camera would indeed be a half-frame model.
TKO confirmed in the video that a working prototype has been built and that he has taken photos with it. “It was so much fun,” he said.
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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An interesting idea but it may be too ambitious for a half-frame camera.
Now if only someone could come along and create something like this, but with some degree of manual control. Would really be that difficult to make a $150 to $250 camera with manual controls and a shutter speed up to 1600? Hell, give it a waist level viewfinder and tell me the prism separately.
If they want to make photography enjoyable the controls have to be ergonomic, not folded into a modernist prism. The focus controls need to be a ring on the front of the lens, the film advance needs to be a lever under the thumb. Using the camera needs to feel good. That camera looks like a late film period auto every thing compact film camera with bits stripped out
I don’t think that’s a photo of the actual camera. As for the zone focusing, I think it needs to be possible to select the zone without looking. That’s something the LC-A got right – they’ve said the zone will be visible through the viewfinder, which is useful, but still involves looking. Putting it on a ring like you said will be good if it can still be done by touch alone (not like a Holga) – a nice click as it arrives at reach zone.
[…] These would be followed by other companies launching half frames and even the new Pentax camera is going to use that format […]