Some Pentax 17 Reviews (with Sample Photos)

1. B&H:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/videos/photography/finally-a-new-film-camera-announcing-the-pentax-17/BI/2446/KBID/3285/SID/DFF/DFF/d50

2. Kosmo Foto:

https://kosmofoto.com/2024/06/pentax-17-first-impressions/

3. 35mmc:

https://www.35mmc.com/17/06/2024/pentax-17-review/

4. Casual Photophile:

https://casualphotophile.com/2024/06/17/pentax-17-new-film-camera-review/

5. Mobile 01 (in Chinese):

https://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=543&t=6975873

6. Cool3c (in Chinese):

https://www.cool3c.com/article/218393

My opinions on the camera it's fun and interesting. However, the guessing focusing is just not my cup of tea, especially for a $500 camera. I also have some doubt in the image quality of the 3-element lens. 

And, I just wonder why it is stated in the spec that rechargeable CR2 cannot be used, as I have been using a Chinese model in my Fujifilm instant film camera without any problem. The battery life for one single disposable CR2 for only ten rolls of film seems a bit too short. 

Lastly, the manual film speed setting would be a good idea as I usually set a lower speed to expose more to make grains less visible, especially for negatives. However, a DX coded system is yet more fool-proof for novices, though.

Read Also:

The Word First / Pentax First: My Obsolete Pentax Collection

Ned Bunnell's Take on the K-3 III Mono

See his latest posted samples at Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ned_bunnell/sets/72177720307495920/

via his DPR post here.

Whilst the photos are nice, they do lack a bit contrast and sharpness. I would expect (much) better IQ for a dedicated B&W machine, honestly speaking. 

Btw, it seems that Ned does not update his blog anymore.

More K-3 III Monochrome Samples at the "Pentax Official" Site

https://pentaxofficial.com/18527/

https://pentaxofficial.com/18482/

https://pentaxofficial.com/18512/

All in Japanese, but the pictures speak for themselves. Various Pentax original lenses were used for the tests.

K-3 III Monochrome First Review (with Sample Photos and Video)

https://www.yaotomi.co.jp/blog/walk/2023/04/pentaxk3iii,monochrome-kyoto,sakura.html

(in Japanese)

My impression is that while the B&W photos do have more contrasts and better tonal representation than normal digital cameras' ones, they are yet not as solid as those images produced with better B&W films, even after they are digitalised via professional-grade film scanners.

Besides, there is a side-by-side comparison against the original K-3 III, look this:

(Credit: Yaotomi Camera at Twitter)

The difference is obvious. However, it is just that the B&W IQ of the K-3 III photo is just too low, IMHO.

Lastly, DC Watch reports that the Ricoh has stopped to receive pre-orders of the K-3 III Mono as the tailor-made sensors have already been out-of-stock owing to the overwhelming demand. Besides, Ricoh also said that their production capacity on the Mono units was indeed rather limited.

KF Full Review at DC Watch

https://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/newproduct/1482066.html

In Japanese, Google translated page here.

DA*300 has Become the Lens of a Mini-satellite

See this official press release:

https://news.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/rim_info/2022/20220311_031667.html

This Pentax lens was chosen because of its full metal barrel construction as well as its high resolution but yet compact size. By the way, the lens contributes to almost half of the size of the Japanese mini-satellite named "Kitsune", which was launched to the space via an US rocket in February this year.

Interesting Comparison of Different Pentax Custom Images

At the Malificent Images..

The new Custom Image "Satobi" is compared side-by-side against "Flat" or "Vibrant" which is also known as "Miyabi" as mentioned in the above blog post.  The camera body used is a K-3 III.

It seems that Satobi is a colour tone that one would not use normally, but only for creating an aged and nostalgic mood and feel.

The K-3 III Variants

 

Accordingly to this "confidential" diagram, there are six variants of the K-3 III to come. The first one is a deep-black coloured body, the second one is with a modified shutter release button for a different touch, the third one is a monochrome model, the fourth one is a MF model (maybe with a MF focusing screen?), the fifth one is a gun-metal coloured body, and the last one is an astro-model with a modified sensor filter for astro-photography.

Btw, it was also told by Ricoh officially in their recent local marketing event that there will be no new Pentax full frame body in the near future and the K-1 II will still be the current model for the time being.

The K-3 III Image Corner Blur Issue Strikes Again

Camera-gear YouTuber Kobie M-C tested the K-3 and K-3 III side by side and here is his report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH2eQD6fpA0

And, his quick textual comment follows, quoted:

"Some interesting things occurred during the shooting for this test. It seems the K-3 Mark III sensor out resolves some lenses including the DA 50 1.8 which surprised me. It's a good lens, nice and sharp, but just not on the K-3 Mark III. I tried live view, electronic shutter, Focus fine adjustments from -10 to +10 and it was still soft. F/1.8, 2.8, 4 (when the lens is sharpest) and still the same result. This might be what some professional reviewers are experiencing when they mention soft images."

The below quick snapshot refers for easy reference:

(Click to Enlarge)

In fact, Kobie's finding is exactly the same as what I found last time with my new K-3 III when it was tested against my KP side by side.

As the increase in the total number of pixels of the K-3 III against the K-3 and KP is really marginal, I think there exists another factor to cause the decrease in resolution in image corners for images produced by the K-3 III, even for the same old lenses, which used to be optically good. 

I suspect the (different) design of the micro-lenses and (different) assumed incident angle of light should come into play. Indeed, the new 26MP Sony sensor was first used in the Fujifilm X-T4 which has a much short back focal distance. Later on, Ricoh got this sensor and put it into the K-3 III. However, the new sensor is not that highly compatible with many of the old glass in optical sense, especially at the image corners and edges, and that wide angle lenses suffer more than standard and tele ones.

I have verified this with the latest glass marketed by Pentax, in particular, like the D-FA* 16-50 PLM, which shows a much lesser problem for the aforesaid issue and phenomenon. 

Related Article:

When the Sensor Outresolves the Lens

More Sample Photos of the DFA 21 Limited (by Yaotomi)

https://www.yaotomi.co.jp/blog/walk/2021/10/hdpentaxd,fa21mmf24,limited.html

(in Japanese)

Both K-1 Mark II and K-3 Mark III were used to take the samples, but the posted pictures are just too small to tell about the resolution. The colour and 3d rendition as well as bokeh of the lens look nice this time. This lens seems very suitable to be used on both Full Frame and APS-C bodies.

Mapcamera Field Tested the DFA 21 Limited (with Downsized Samples)

https://news.mapcamera.com/KASYAPA/pentax_21_limited/

(in Japanese)

The test pictures were taken with a full-frame K-1 II, all posted sample photos are downsized to 10.7 mega-pixels. IMO, the image centre resolution looks good even when the lens is wide or near opened and that corner-to-corner sharpness is achievable when it is stopped down. However, I am not impressed with the dynamic range of the samples (which looks really bad) and neither the colour rendition of those. Let's see more samples to verify and judge in due course.

Comparison Test of Four Different Production Units of the FA 43 Limited

Found this interesting article (in Traditional Chinese, Google English translated page here) that's worth a read.

Side-by-side comparison tests were done with the MZ-S for film and the Fujifilm GFX50S digital cropped medium format body. To view the test pictures in their original size (which can be enlarged), just right click and select to view the pictures in a separate/new tab in browser.

Besides the comments made by the author of the article, you may find other differences by yourself. As for years, I blog, you decide. :-)

Official: More Technical Information about the K-3 III

 

Claimed new improvements or new features include: 

- New viewfinder optics with a higher magnification factor of which the displayed image is also brighter, with the addition of a new condenser lens and with an overlaid LCD information display, too 

- New metering system with 307k colour pixels which has better metering accuracy and also helps the tracking of moving objects

- New high-speed mirror and shutter driving mechanism 

- New PRIME V processor and high ISO performance which is better than that of the K-1 II in terms of noise/details as well as reproduced colours (but that the ISO performance of the K-1 II is really rather outdated by today's standard, nonetheless). New Fine Sharpness II setting option is also made available for in-camera JPEG sharpening.

- New SAFOX 13 AF module of which the layout is shown in the below diagram

Legend: Red squares = Crossed AF sensors (25 nos.), Red and Blue squares = Selectable AF points (41 nos.), Deep Blue "circled" sensors = -EV4 low light capable and F2.8 lens aperture compatible (9 nos.)

:

The K-3 III is Delayed and Here Comes the Re-packaged 3 FA Limiteds in HD

We all knew that the K-3 III was delayed without a new release or market launch date announced. :-(

Hence, Ricoh is "kind" enough to let us have something else "new", right before the CP+. ;-P

Here we go:

(Source: Japanese Nokishita Twitter via Cameota. In short, the new features of the re-packaged FA Limited lenses are HD plus SP coatings, round aperture and blades and guaranteed -10 deg.C temperature operation, there is no Weather Resistance, nonetheless. Anyway, my old FA Limiteds have never had any problem working in cold and snowing conditions under -10 to -20 deg.C in the past, so did my other film FA lenses, but getting the lenses wet might cause real problems. As for the aperture ring and aluminium casted lens bodies, these are indeed good old features but nothing new.

Update (Feb 25): The HD FA Limited Special Site is now online (in Japanese only). Online pre-ordering from the Ricoh web store is also made available. The offered prices are not cheap, though.

Ned Bunnell Demonstrates How Good the Old Pentax Glass Could Be (Re: A* 85 F1.4)

Ned Bunnell, ex-CEO of the Pentax Imaging USA (which was named), published some of his recent pictures taken with his A* 85 F1.4 on a K-1 II,. See this Flickr set of his:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/85492092@N03/sets/72157714981262381

I like both the colour rendition and the micro-contrast of the lens reproduced, which could look better than what is produced by the latest D FA*85 F1.4, from the various samples that I have seen so far. I think Ned is also a good photographer, too, as I could feel the mood of his photos in a good way.

Speaking of Ned, he is actually a nice and good guy. I dropped him a few emails for my suggestions and comments when he was the CEO and I was the (in)famous "Pentax basher" decade ago. Whilst many Pentax fanboys did hate me much and had to beat me to death whenever I spoke, Ned did always respond to my every email in a polite and respectful way. I think it is not easy for him, as the top management of Pentax, to not ignore an "enemy" like me and I believe that he is an humble and open-minded guy after all.

DPR's Sample Gallery of the D FA* 85 Published

https://www.dpreview.com/samples/1659227315/pentax-d-fa-85mm-f1-4-sample-gallery

Resolution wise, undoubtedly it is very good, near wide opened and from corner to corner for the whole image frame. Vignetting is also minimal at wide opened at F1.4.

But, it seems that the lens does lack some micro-contrast. The images in gallery do not look that three dimensional or "airy" after all. The colour rendition is also not that exceptional, IMHO. The old FA* or A* might look better in those two specific image quality aspects. My two cents, though. YMMV.

One More Practical Test of the D FA*85, with Full Samples

http://pentaxfans.net/thread-164498-1-1.html

(in Traditional Chinese, Google translated English page here)

Indeed, this set of photos taken just by an ordinary Pentax user does look better than the set created by the Pentax official Japanese professional photographer IMHO. Despite that some pictures taken at high ISO still look soft when viewed at pixel level, which is just the primitive problem of the K-1II and is actually unavoidable.

Note that original full sized samples are available for viewing and download via the user's Flickr album here.

DC Watch Reviewed the D FA* 85 F1.4, with Bundle of Full Samples

https://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/newproduct/1270372.html

(in Japanese, Google translated English page here)

Enjoy! But it looks to me that the photos are a bit odd in tone. And, it seems that they are not as airy, transparent and bright as those images produced by its predecessors A* and FA* 85 ishes. But afterall, I blog, you decide, as usual. :-D

When the X-T4 and GFX 100 Produced Images Look the Same

Via FStoppers

I am afraid that same case applies for the Pentax K-New Vs the 645Z, which they have exactly the same APS-C and 44x33mm sensors respectively and that the final conclusion drawn would possibly be the same. :-P

Shootout of D FA* 85 Vs FA* 85 Vs A* 85 on K-1 II

http://pentaxfans.net/thread-164447-1-1.html

(in Traditional Chinese)

The posted test pictures with simple captions are self-explanatory. For the comments made by the tester, the Google-translated English page could be viewed. After all, I do agree with him for most of his comments and observations.