Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Pentax 17

Pentax · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film, vertical with the camera held normally · 2024

Also known as: Ricoh Pentax 17 · PENTAX 17 · ペンタックス17 · Pentax Film Camera Project

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Pentax 17 Half-frame 2024 — In production; no figure published
  1. Ricoh Imaging's own statement is that the lens descends from the Espio mini and the Ricoh Auto Half — a 1994 compact and a 1962 half-frame, both in this catalog. That is the maker's claim about heritage, recorded as such.
  2. The price is the argument every reviewer has with it: $499 against a used Pen or Demi at a fraction, or a used full-frame compact at half. DPReview, Field Mag and 35mmc each weigh it and reach different answers.
  3. Focus is by zone and the finder shows which zone, but not always clearly; Field Mag's blurred food photographs are the recurring example.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A modern camera with a film-advance lever, a rewind crank and an ISO dial — deliberately, as the whole pitch
  • Seven exposure modes on a dial: Auto, Standard, Slow, Bokeh (maximum aperture), Bulb, Daylight sync, Slow sync
  • The vertical half frame of the 1960s Pens, with a frame-line finder to match

Pentax 17:

  • HD Pentax 25mm f/3.5, three elements in three groups — a triplet whose design Ricoh Imaging says descends from the 1994 Espio mini and the Ricoh Auto Half
  • Program AE electronic shutter, 1/350 to 4 s plus bulb; partial metering EV 2.5–16.5; ±2 EV in thirds
  • Six focus zones: 0.24–0.26, 0.47–0.54, 1.0–1.4, 1.4–2.2, 2.1–5.3 and 5.1 m to infinity
  • Manual lever advance with a 130° stroke; Albada bright-frame finder; flash GN 6; one CR2; magnesium top and bottom plates over a plastic body
  • 127 × 78 × 52 mm, 290 g

Specifications

Format
18×24 mm on 35mm film, vertical with the camera held normally · 72 exposures
Finder
Albada bright-frame finder with composition and close-up frames and the zone marks visible · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Programmed electronic leaf · 1/350 – 4 s and B · self-timer
Film advance
Manual single-stroke lever, 130° with a 35° stand-off
Meter
Partial metering, EV 2.5–16.5 at ISO 100, program AE; ±2 EV compensation
Designed by
Takeo Suzuki (鈴木 崇雄) — product planner and public face of the Pentax Film Camera Project; named in Ricoh Imaging's announcements
Weight
290 g
Dimensions
127 × 78 × 52 mm
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

History

On 17 June 2024 Ricoh Imaging released the first new film camera from a major Japanese maker in about twenty years, and made it a half-frame. The Pentax 17 exposes the vertical 18×24 frame of the 1960s Pens through a three-element HD Pentax 25mm f/3.5 whose design, Ricoh says, descends from the 1994 Espio mini and the 1962 Ricoh Auto Half — both cameras in this catalog. Exposure is a programmed electronic shutter from 1/350 to four seconds with seven modes on a dial; focus is by six zones from 24 centimetres to infinity, shown in an Albada bright-frame finder; the film is advanced by a lever and rewound by a crank, on purpose, because the lever and the crank are the point. Magnesium top and bottom plates over a plastic body, 290 grams, one CR2, a flash of guide number 6. It cost $499.

The reviews divide on that number and agree on the rest. 35mmc found a camera that takes great photographs in a way that is enjoyable; DPReview had a lot of fun and noted that seventy-two frames lower the stakes of each one; PetaPixel called the thumb winder and manual loading the appeal and the housing plasticky; Field Mag’s food came back comically blurred because the zone ring’s setting is not obvious in the finder, and for $500 the reviewer could not name the buyer. Two years after a fifty-dollar acrylic Kodak proved the demand, this is the serious version.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Pentax 17
Pentax 17, 2024 — MIKI Yoshihito. (#mikiyoshihito), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Pentax 17
Pentax 17, the top plate: mode dial, exposure compensation, advance lever — MIKI Yoshihito. (#mikiyoshihito), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Pentax 17? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $480 across 32 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $42–$550). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 3 days: up 2% from $470.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$480$42–$55032
2026-09-10$480$42–$55032
2026-09-06$470$42–$50034

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 55 more listings

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Kodak Ektar H35 · Olympus Pen · Ricoh Auto Half

Sources (5)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.