Aengus MacNaughtonThe most recent video posted by Pentax about this project sounds great, but at the same time a bit disappointing to me personally.
Pentax launched this project — what, almost 2 years ago — and I got caught up thinking that at the end of the process I could buy a Pentax Spotmatic-M SLR — metal, 35mm camera that takes M42 and PK lenses, is fully manual, yet has autoexposure when needed. Basically including the best features from 75+ years of Pentax camera building! Well, yes, I was being quite optimistic and putting a huge expectation burden on Pentax which had not made a 35mm camera, much less a metal/solid/manual one, for many, many years. So the project has moved forward to a more consumer-oriented camera — and this announcement is –uh — interesting. At first in my head I was whining — “What — half-frame?” “Stressing ease of use by young film photographers??? What about us old film photographers???” But — frankly the fact that Pentax has put this much thought into a risky investment — and are trying to maximize the market for such a camera — it could have been a lot worse (rebadged RETO plastic camera!). We’ll just have to see — the description does offer advantages over pretty much all currently-produced 35mm cameras out there. What are your thoughts???
