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For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Grandes Serres Tropicales, April 17, 2025
Jardin Botanique de Lyon
Parc de la Tête d'Or
69006 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
A fourth study film with my Nikon F4 to test further of its numerous functions. In particular, I would like to test in this session the matrix zone metering in the "A" automation mode (aperture priority) combined with the TTL mastering of the Nikon Speedilght SB-26 electronic flash for automatic equilibration of ambient and artificial light (fill-in exposition).
The Nikon F4 was loaded this time with an Ilford FP4+ with the DX coded nominal 125 ISO film sensitivity (transmitted to the SB-23 that displays it). The weather was quite darkened at first, but the sun appeared slightly in the middle of the afternoon. The AF Nikkor lens 1:1.4 f=50mm was fitted with a protective Hoya HMC anti-UV 52mm filter plus a generic cylindric metal shade hood.
For focusing I used all the time the single autofocus mode. As for my medium-format sessions, I took a bit of time to note on a session ticket the main parameters (shutter speed, aperture, focusing distance, flash control mode, etc).
View Nr 31: Body "A" mode with matrix metering for controlling both the ambient and flash power TTL giving 1/60s f/11, focus @ 0.8 m (with the SB-23 light diffusor set for the standard lens 50mm)
Nature Morte, November 18, 2024
69004 Lyon
France
After completion, the film was rewound using the rewinding motor (lever R1 then lever R2). During the film rewind (manual or auto) the view counter decrements and I switched-off the R2 lever just arrived at -2 to keep the leader out of the cartridge. I then processed the film developed using 300 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer prepared at the dilution 1+25 for 9min at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta Auto Bellows with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
The results show that the Nikon F4 matrix metering coupled to the automatic shutter timing and TTL control of the SB-26 Speedlight torch gives amazingly well-exposed view quite consistent with my traditional way to determine the exposition manually for fill-in exposure mixing ambient and electronic torch.
Overall this third session with the Nikon F4 confirms that the camera is very pleasant to use despite its 1.7kg (fitted with its standard 1.4/50mm). The minimalistic Nikon neck strap remains comfortable and well proportionated to the camera even when the SB-26 is fitted to the camera body.
--------------
About the camera :
Maybe it would have been better not to ask for this question: « what’s new do you have at the moment?» to my local photo store, because Christine grab underneath the counter, stating « I have that … » . What a beast ! A Nikon F4 in the exact state of the Nikon brochure year 1990, presented with the standard AF Nikkor 1:1.4 f=50mm. I was already hooked by the machine. After two days, I decided to buy it even with some little common issues found on early Nikon F4 (see below), fortunately not affecting the whole, numberous functions of this incredibly complex professional SLR of the year 1990’s.
Nikon F4 came to the market on September 1988 starting with the serial number 2.000.000. Fully manufactured in Japan (modules came from 3 different Nikon factories) the F4's were assembled in Mito, Ibaraki (North to Tokyo) Nikon plant (no more in the mother factory of Tokyo Oi like the Nikon’s F). When I lived in Tokyo in 1990-1991, Nikon F4 was the top-of-the-line of Nikon SLR camera’s. I saw it in particular in Shinjuku Bic Camera store when I bought there, in December 1990 my Nikonos V.
Nikon F4 incorporates many astonishing engineering features as the double vertical-travel curtain shutter capable of the 1/8000s. Compared to the Nikon F3, the F4 was an AF SLR operated by a CCD sensor (200 photo sites). The film is automatically loaded, advanced with to top speed of 5,7 frame/s !! With the MB-21 power grip (F4s version). The F4 is a very heavy camera (1.7kg with the AF Nikkor 1.4/50mm), incredibly tough and well constructed. This exemplary is devoid of any scratches or marks, and in a condition proving that it was not used for hard professional appliances, for those it was however intended. The camera has still it original Nikon neck strap, the original user manual in French. The lens is protected by a Cokin (Franc) Skylight 1A 52mm filter and the original Nikon front cap. The two small LCD displays (one on the F4 body, one in the DP-20 finder) are both affected by the classical syndrome of « bleeding ». Fortunately, all information could still be read. One says that 70% of the early Nikon F4 suffer from this problem but also found on other models.
According its serial number and the production rate of about 5000 units/month, this Nikon F4s was probably manufactured in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in May 1989.
The camera was exported abroad thereafter attested by the presence of the golden oval little sticker("Passed" on the DP-20 viewfinder. In order to certify the quality production, two Japanese organizations, the Japan Camera Industry Institute (JCII) and the Japan Machinery Design Center (JMDC), joined forces to verify and mark the conformity of products for the foreign market. This is how, between the 1950s and 1980s, this famous little gold sticker was affixed, with the legendary "Passed", meaning that the device had been checked. Finally, when we say that the device had been checked, the production line had been checked because each device could not be checked individually.
____________
About the flash :
I received from a German seller for 50€ this Nikon Speedlight electronic flash SB-26 that was, at the time of Nikon F4, the most powerful dedicated Nikon flash (Guide Number 36 at full power and 100 ISO).
The SB-26 communicates with the Nikon F4 body (and many other Nikon camera's) and can be operated in many different modes including TTL real-time metering with automatic equilibration of the ambient light using the 5-zone matrix metering done by the DP-20 photometric viewer as well in the center-weighted mode. Other possibilities include the normal TTL mode, an Auto mode using the own sensor of the flash and a manual mode with 7 power levels.
The flash head can cover the optical field from super-wide angle lenses 18-20mm, wide-angle lenses 28mm and 35mm, normal lenses 50mm, and long-focal lenses at 70mm and 85mm. The head can be rotated according two axis for indirect lightening. In addition, the SB-26 has a special focusing aid for the Nikon F4 autofocus system, projecting in the the darkness a red focusing image. SB-23 flash can be also used as master or slave flash in a coordinated flash system.
The flash requires 4 AA alkaline cells for approximately 100 lights at full power and much more with energy recycling at lower power levels.
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Documentary smartphone picture
Serre aux Camélias, April 17, 2025
Grandes serres tropicales
Jardin Botanique de lyon
Parc de la Tête d'Or
69006 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
Please always consider the sensitivity of birds, nearby humans, and the environment.
Please read, PRACTICE, and promote the ABA Code of Birding Ethics.
A fourth study film with my Nikon F4 to test further of its numerous functions. In particular, I would like to test in this session the matrix zone metering in the "A" automation mode (aperture priority) combined with the TTL mastering of the Nikon Speedilght SB-26 electronic flash for automatic equilibration of ambient and artificial light (fill-in exposition).
The Nikon F4 was loaded this time with an Ilford FP4+ with the DX coded nominal 125 ISO film sensitivity (transmitted to the SB-23 that displays it). The weather was quite darkened at first, but the sun appeared slightly in the middle of the afternoon. The AF Nikkor lens 1:1.4 f=50mm was fitted with a protective Hoya HMC anti-UV 52mm filter plus a generic cylindric metal shade hood.
For focusing I used all the time the single autofocus mode. As for my medium-format sessions, I took a bit of time to note on a session ticket the main parameters (shutter speed, aperture, focusing distance, flash control mode, etc).
Contact sheet
November 18, 2024
Parc de la Cerisaie - Villa Gillet
69004 Lyon
France
After completion, the film was rewound using the rewinding motor (lever R1 then lever R2). During the film rewind (manual or auto) the view counter decrements and I switched-off the R2 lever just arrived at -2 to keep the leader out of the cartridge. I then processed the film developed using 300 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer prepared at the dilution 1+25 for 9min at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta Auto Bellows with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
The results show that the Nikon F4 matrix metering coupled to the automatic shutter timing and TTL control of the SB-26 Speedlight torch gives amazingly well-exposed view quite consistent with my traditional way to determine the exposition manually for fill-in exposure mixing ambient and electronic torch.
Overall this third session with the Nikon F4 confirms that the camera is very pleasant to use despite its 1.7kg (fitted with its standard 1.4/50mm). The minimalistic Nikon neck strap remains comfortable and well proportionated to the camera even when the SB-26 is fitted to the camera body.
--------------
About the camera :
Maybe it would have been better not to ask for this question: « what’s new do you have at the moment?» to my local photo store, because Christine grab underneath the counter, stating « I have that … » . What a beast ! A Nikon F4 in the exact state of the Nikon brochure year 1990, presented with the standard AF Nikkor 1:1.4 f=50mm. I was already hooked by the machine. After two days, I decided to buy it even with some little common issues found on early Nikon F4 (see below), fortunately not affecting the whole, numberous functions of this incredibly complex professional SLR of the year 1990’s.
Nikon F4 came to the market on September 1988 starting with the serial number 2.000.000. Fully manufactured in Japan (modules came from 3 different Nikon factories) the F4's were assembled in Mito, Ibaraki (North to Tokyo) Nikon plant (no more in the mother factory of Tokyo Oi like the Nikon’s F). When I lived in Tokyo in 1990-1991, Nikon F4 was the top-of-the-line of Nikon SLR camera’s. I saw it in particular in Shinjuku Bic Camera store when I bought there, in December 1990 my Nikonos V.
Nikon F4 incorporates many astonishing engineering features as the double vertical-travel curtain shutter capable of the 1/8000s. Compared to the Nikon F3, the F4 was an AF SLR operated by a CCD sensor (200 photo sites). The film is automatically loaded, advanced with to top speed of 5,7 frame/s !! With the MB-21 power grip (F4s version). The F4 is a very heavy camera (1.7kg with the AF Nikkor 1.4/50mm), incredibly tough and well constructed. This exemplary is devoid of any scratches or marks, and in a condition proving that it was not used for hard professional appliances, for those it was however intended. The camera has still it original Nikon neck strap, the original user manual in French. The lens is protected by a Cokin (Franc) Skylight 1A 52mm filter and the original Nikon front cap. The two small LCD displays (one on the F4 body, one in the DP-20 finder) are both affected by the classical syndrome of « bleeding ». Fortunately, all information could still be read. One says that 70% of the early Nikon F4 suffer from this problem but also found on other models.
According its serial number and the production rate of about 5000 units/month, this Nikon F4s was probably manufactured in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in May 1989.
The camera was exported abroad thereafter attested by the presence of the golden oval little sticker("Passed" on the DP-20 viewfinder. In order to certify the quality production, two Japanese organizations, the Japan Camera Industry Institute (JCII) and the Japan Machinery Design Center (JMDC), joined forces to verify and mark the conformity of products for the foreign market. This is how, between the 1950s and 1980s, this famous little gold sticker was affixed, with the legendary "Passed", meaning that the device had been checked. Finally, when we say that the device had been checked, the production line had been checked because each device could not be checked individually.
____________
About the flash :
I received from a German seller for 50€ this Nikon Speedlight electronic flash SB-26 that was, at the time of Nikon F4, the most powerful dedicated Nikon flash (Guide Number 36 at full power and 100 ISO).
The SB-26 communicates with the Nikon F4 body (and many other Nikon camera's) and can be operated in many different modes including TTL real-time metering with automatic equilibration of the ambient light using the 5-zone matrix metering done by the DP-20 photometric viewer as well in the center-weighted mode. Other possibilities include the normal TTL mode, an Auto mode using the own sensor of the flash and a manual mode with 7 power levels.
The flash head can cover the optical field from super-wide angle lenses 18-20mm, wide-angle lenses 28mm and 35mm, normal lenses 50mm, and long-focal lenses at 70mm and 85mm. The head can be rotated according two axis for indirect lightening. In addition, the SB-26 has a special focusing aid for the Nikon F4 autofocus system, projecting in the the darkness a red focusing image. SB-23 flash can be also used as master or slave flash in a coordinated flash system.
The flash requires 4 AA alkaline cells for approximately 100 lights at full power and much more with energy recycling at lower power levels.
On page 6 of the textbook, read through Minor White’s notion of how a photographer walking down an average block “in a state of sensitized sympathy to everything to be seen…. would be exhausted and out of film” before finishing the short walk. Choose a short span of what you consider to be “average space,” a place that has nothing of obvious note about it (could be indoors, outdoors, but normally considered to be “unremarkable” by you) and put yourself in this kind of state of “sensitized sympathy” and hyper-acute awareness to your visual sense, and use this state of mind as the basis of a photographic exploration.
Aperture:F/5.6
Shutter Speed:1/250s
ISO Sensitivity:ISO 100
This was originally a picture of trees with mountains far in the background, washed out by fog and snow on my way home for the weekend. I took it for fun originally, as a potential wallpaper. I took picture of my black bedsheets as a blend layer for that wrinkly look, and blended in a picture of our classrooms' overhead lights. I played around with the colors on the overhead light image in order for it to play with the colors in the treeline , and I like the effect it had. I ran with the desktop wallpaper idea and am very happy with the results. While it originally felt fairly empty, I feel the layer blends added a lot to the end product. It's still negative space, but it's interesting negative space.
The films distributed under the Rollei Brand by MACO Products, Germany, include former film formula's of Agfa company. The Rollei INFRARED 400 would differs from the Retro 400S (which iis ndeed the formula of former Agfa Aviphot 400) version by increased sensitivity in the near-infrared band. The film is side-marked 'INFRARED" but the processing times are the same as the 400S version.
On July, 29, 2024, Lyon, France, I decided to test a roll of this INFRARED version in a photo session at Par de la Tête d'Or by a quite warm (36°C) and sunny day. The results are quite close to my person IR-photography sessions made past year with the 400S version.
I took the same camera I used past year for infrared photography with one of my two Minolta's X-700 (the one called « China » period 1993-1999)
The Agfa Aviphot 400 film was originally designed for aerial photography for its capacity to differentiate green tones and to give a good clarity reducing in part the atmospheric haze. The Agfa Aviphot sensivity curve starts to decrease at 670 nm to fall at zero around 820 nm. The band starting at 780 (up to 2500nm) is the beginning of the "near infra-red" band of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Minolta X-700 SLR camera was fitted with a normal lens Minolta MD 1:1.2 f=50mm. The lens was equipped with a 55mm screw-on IR filter with a cutoff at 720nm. Since the filter is so dark for a comfortable through-the-lens viewing, a FOCA "Universel" external view-finder (Made in France in the 50’s) was used for an easy framing. The X-700 has also a Multi-Function Back allowing diverse pricing modes. The date was manually printed before view 1 and the time of the end of film after the last frame.
The film was exposed for 40 ISO using my Minolta Autometer III external light meter equipped with a selective 10° finder. The X-700 light metering system was not used and the camera was operated in the manual mode using the exposure times of 1/60s or 1/125s for f/4 to f/11
Parc de la Tête d'Or, July 29, 2024
69006 Lyon
France
After completion, the film was processed using Adox Adonal developer (equivalent to Agfa Rodinal) at dilution 1+25, 20°C for 10min30. The photograms were then digitalized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were then processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures.
All frames of the film are presented in two different processing versions (normal or with the "clarity" parameter of LR reduced by -100% to mimic the traditional glow of former KODAK Infrared films)
About the camera and the lens :
Minolta X-700 SLR was manufactured in Japan and first released in 1981, and delocalized in China from 1993 to 1999. I bought them in early 2022 from eBay accompanied with their motor drive MD I and other accessories. The MD 1:1.2 f=50mm is part of my Minolta lens collection and was purchased as a vintage lens on line in the mid 2010's.
Please always consider the sensitivity of birds, nearby humans, and the environment.
Don't lie to try to cover up your mistakes & misdeeds.
Please read, PRACTICE, and promote the ABA Code of Birding Ethics.
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Viburnum plicatum (China, Japan)***
Jardin Botanique de Lyon, April 17, 2025
Parc de la Tête d'Or
69006 Lyon
France.
______
*** Viburnum plicatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae (formerly Caprifoliaceae), native to mainland China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The Latin specific epithet plicatum means "pleated", referring to the texture of the leaves.
_____
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
Malladi Brothers from India performing at Isai Perrarangu of Sri Raama Gaanaamirtham ~ Isai Velvi 2011. Malladi Brothers capture the audience during their firstever performance in Sri Lanka.
The Malladi Brothers ~ Malladi Sreeramprasad and Malladi Ravikumar, are a Carnatic music vocalist duo. They started their music education under Malladi Srirammurthy and Malladi Suri Babu, their grandfather and father respectively.
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
April 18 2025
69004 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
Looking to improve your insulin sensitivity levels? If so, you need to pay attention to a few tips and tricks to help you get more from your nutrition plan and lifestyle. Insulin sensitivity is a key factor determining whether or not you are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, so it is not...
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Please always consider the sensitivity of birds, nearby humans, and the environment.
Don't lie & Den'y to try to cover up your bird listing misdeeds & mistakes. Locals who do are a continuing disgrace -- like the occupiers of Malheur and the White House. Don't trespass on Yakama land while chasing owls around in a field; don't trespass on Yakama Nation closed lands; don't take credit for others' finds; don't trespass on Priest Rapids Dam or on Simon Martinez private property or closed areas in the Yakima Training Center military area; don't claim a Red-necked Phalarope is a Red Phalarope; don't illegally harass Spotted Owls or quiz bird watchers about a rare bird sighting on your (invalid) Big Day; don't change your eBird locations to try to cover up your trespassing; don't try to get others to adopt or to excuse your illegal and unethical bird listing practices, or to believe your lies.
Please read, PRACTICE, and promote the ABA Code of Birding Ethics.
Sensitivity: On page 6 of the textbook, read through Minor White’s notion of how a photographer walking down an average block “in a state of sensitized sympathy to everything to be seen…. would be exhausted and out of film” before finishing the short walk. Choose a short span of what you consider to be “average space,” a place that has nothing of obvious note about it (could be indoors, outdoors, but normally considered to be “unremarkable” by you) and put yourself in this kind of state of “sensitized sympathy” and hyper-acute awareness to your visual sense, and use this state of mind as the basis of a photographic exploration.
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Confluence Saône-Rhône, April 14 2025
69002 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Contact Sheets (2 pages)
April 18, 2025
69004 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
Beta Actin Ab6276 (WB)
Specificity:Specific
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The films distributed under the Rollei Brand by MACO Products, Germany, include former film formula's of Agfa company. The Rollei INFRARED 400 would differs from the Retro 400S (which iis ndeed the formula of former Agfa Aviphot 400) version by increased sensitivity in the near-infrared band. The film is side-marked 'INFRARED" but the processing times are the same as the 400S version.
On July, 29, 2024, Lyon, France, I decided to test a roll of this INFRARED version in a photo session at Par de la Tête d'Or by a quite warm (36°C) and sunny day. The results are quite close to my person IR-photography sessions made past year with the 400S version.
I took the same camera I used past year for infrared photography with one of my two Minolta's X-700 (the one called « China » period 1993-1999)
The Agfa Aviphot 400 film was originally designed for aerial photography for its capacity to differentiate green tones and to give a good clarity reducing in part the atmospheric haze. The Agfa Aviphot sensivity curve starts to decrease at 670 nm to fall at zero around 820 nm. The band starting at 780 (up to 2500nm) is the beginning of the "near infra-red" band of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Minolta X-700 SLR camera was fitted with a normal lens Minolta MD 1:1.2 f=50mm. The lens was equipped with a 55mm screw-on IR filter with a cutoff at 720nm. Since the filter is so dark for a comfortable through-the-lens viewing, a FOCA "Universel" external view-finder (Made in France in the 50’s) was used for an easy framing. The X-700 has also a Multi-Function Back allowing diverse pricing modes. The date was manually printed before view 1 and the time of the end of film after the last frame.
The film was exposed for 40 ISO using my Minolta Autometer III external light meter equipped with a selective 10° finder. The X-700 light metering system was not used and the camera was operated in the manual mode using the exposure times of 1/60s or 1/125s for f/4 to f/11
Parc de la Tête d'Or, July 29, 2024
69006 Lyon
France
After completion, the film was processed using Adox Adonal developer (equivalent to Agfa Rodinal) at dilution 1+25, 20°C for 10min30. The photograms were then digitalized using a Sony A7 body fitted to a Minolta Slide Duplicator installed on a Minolta Auto Bellows III with a lens Minolta Bellow Macro Rokkor 50mm f/3.5. The RAW files obtained were then processed without intermediate files in LR and edited to the final jpeg pictures.
All frames of the film are presented in two different processing versions (normal or with the "clarity" parameter of LR reduced by -100% to mimic the traditional glow of former KODAK Infrared films)
About the camera and the lens :
Minolta X-700 SLR was manufactured in Japan and first released in 1981, and delocalized in China from 1993 to 1999. I bought them in early 2022 from eBay accompanied with their motor drive MD I and other accessories. The MD 1:1.2 f=50mm is part of my Minolta lens collection and was purchased as a vintage lens on line in the mid 2010's.
photographic art - uv print on archival quality canvas, with acrylic painting, beadworks and embroidery - on exhibit at the McDermott Gallery (June - September) - featured in East West Magazine
A fourth study film with my Nikon F4 to test further of its numerous functions. In particular, I would like to test in this session the matrix zone metering in the "A" automation mode (aperture priority) combined with the TTL mastering of the Nikon Speedilght SB-26 electronic flash for automatic equilibration of ambient and artificial light (fill-in exposition).
The Nikon F4 was loaded this time with an Ilford FP4+ with the DX coded nominal 125 ISO film sensitivity (transmitted to the SB-23 that displays it). The weather was quite darkened at first, but the sun appeared slightly in the middle of the afternoon. The AF Nikkor lens 1:1.4 f=50mm was fitted with a protective Hoya HMC anti-UV 52mm filter plus a generic cylindric metal shade hood.
For focusing I used all the time the single autofocus mode. As for my medium-format sessions, I took a bit of time to note on a session ticket the main parameters (shutter speed, aperture, focusing distance, flash control mode, etc).
View Nr 33 Body "A" mode with matrix metering for controlling both the ambient and flash power TTL giving 1/60s f/11, focus @ 0.8 m (with the SB-23 light diffusor set for the ultra-wide angle lens 18-20mm and indirect reflection on the left using a folding reflector Manfrotto Lastolite)
November 18, 2024
69004 Lyon
France
After completion, the film was rewound using the rewinding motor (lever R1 then lever R2). During the film rewind (manual or auto) the view counter decrements and I switched-off the R2 lever just arrived at -2 to keep the leader out of the cartridge. I then processed the film developed using 300 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer prepared at the dilution 1+25 for 9min at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta Auto Bellows with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
The results show that the Nikon F4 matrix metering coupled to the automatic shutter timing and TTL control of the SB-26 Speedlight torch gives amazingly well-exposed view quite consistent with my traditional way to determine the exposition manually for fill-in exposure mixing ambient and electronic torch.
Overall this third session with the Nikon F4 confirms that the camera is very pleasant to use despite its 1.7kg (fitted with its standard 1.4/50mm). The minimalistic Nikon neck strap remains comfortable and well proportionated to the camera even when the SB-26 is fitted to the camera body.
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About the camera :
Maybe it would have been better not to ask for this question: « what’s new do you have at the moment?» to my local photo store, because Christine grab underneath the counter, stating « I have that … » . What a beast ! A Nikon F4 in the exact state of the Nikon brochure year 1990, presented with the standard AF Nikkor 1:1.4 f=50mm. I was already hooked by the machine. After two days, I decided to buy it even with some little common issues found on early Nikon F4 (see below), fortunately not affecting the whole, numberous functions of this incredibly complex professional SLR of the year 1990’s.
Nikon F4 came to the market on September 1988 starting with the serial number 2.000.000. Fully manufactured in Japan (modules came from 3 different Nikon factories) the F4's were assembled in Mito, Ibaraki (North to Tokyo) Nikon plant (no more in the mother factory of Tokyo Oi like the Nikon’s F). When I lived in Tokyo in 1990-1991, Nikon F4 was the top-of-the-line of Nikon SLR camera’s. I saw it in particular in Shinjuku Bic Camera store when I bought there, in December 1990 my Nikonos V.
Nikon F4 incorporates many astonishing engineering features as the double vertical-travel curtain shutter capable of the 1/8000s. Compared to the Nikon F3, the F4 was an AF SLR operated by a CCD sensor (200 photo sites). The film is automatically loaded, advanced with to top speed of 5,7 frame/s !! With the MB-21 power grip (F4s version). The F4 is a very heavy camera (1.7kg with the AF Nikkor 1.4/50mm), incredibly tough and well constructed. This exemplary is devoid of any scratches or marks, and in a condition proving that it was not used for hard professional appliances, for those it was however intended. The camera has still it original Nikon neck strap, the original user manual in French. The lens is protected by a Cokin (Franc) Skylight 1A 52mm filter and the original Nikon front cap. The two small LCD displays (one on the F4 body, one in the DP-20 finder) are both affected by the classical syndrome of « bleeding ». Fortunately, all information could still be read. One says that 70% of the early Nikon F4 suffer from this problem but also found on other models.
According its serial number and the production rate of about 5000 units/month, this Nikon F4s was probably manufactured in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in May 1989.
The camera was exported abroad thereafter attested by the presence of the golden oval little sticker("Passed" on the DP-20 viewfinder. In order to certify the quality production, two Japanese organizations, the Japan Camera Industry Institute (JCII) and the Japan Machinery Design Center (JMDC), joined forces to verify and mark the conformity of products for the foreign market. This is how, between the 1950s and 1980s, this famous little gold sticker was affixed, with the legendary "Passed", meaning that the device had been checked. Finally, when we say that the device had been checked, the production line had been checked because each device could not be checked individually.
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About the flash :
I received from a German seller for 50€ this Nikon Speedlight electronic flash SB-26 that was, at the time of Nikon F4, the most powerful dedicated Nikon flash (Guide Number 36 at full power and 100 ISO).
The SB-26 communicates with the Nikon F4 body (and many other Nikon camera's) and can be operated in many different modes including TTL real-time metering with automatic equilibration of the ambient light using the 5-zone matrix metering done by the DP-20 photometric viewer as well in the center-weighted mode. Other possibilities include the normal TTL mode, an Auto mode using the own sensor of the flash and a manual mode with 7 power levels.
The flash head can cover the optical field from super-wide angle lenses 18-20mm, wide-angle lenses 28mm and 35mm, normal lenses 50mm, and long-focal lenses at 70mm and 85mm. The head can be rotated according two axis for indirect lightening. In addition, the SB-26 has a special focusing aid for the Nikon F4 autofocus system, projecting in the the darkness a red focusing image. SB-23 flash can be also used as master or slave flash in a coordinated flash system.
The flash requires 4 AA alkaline cells for approximately 100 lights at full power and much more with energy recycling at lower power levels.