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Photographing with film: my voyage through the depths of hipsterdom
by David Lee
Is Pentax developing a new film camera?
23.12.2022
Translation: machine translated
Maybe in a few years there will be a Pentax-branded analogue camera. That would be nice, but I doubt it will really happen.
Ricoh, the company behind Pentax, has not announced a new film camera. Not even the development of a film camera. But only that it is considering developing an analogue camera. So it's a very tentative announcement that says next to nothing. Corporations consider things all the time, but they seldom reveal them.
Although Ricoh remains extremely vague, the statement is making waves. The report about it on dpreview.com has triggered over 250 comments. I am not surprised. That there is a need for such a product is beyond question. Film photography is still a common hobby. Or rather: again. Because we are exposed to an almost absurd flood of fleetingly snapped and immediately forgotten smartphone pictures. Slow, careful and committed photography with film provides a nice counterpoint to this.
The well-known manufacturers have long since stopped producing film cameras. Anyone who still wants to shoot analogue today is dependent on the second-hand market. There have been a few crowdfunding projects for analogue cameras, but the big hit was never there. These projects are no substitute for the high-quality old models from manufacturers with decades of experience.
If a well-known manufacturer is now committing to film, that's great. Pentax as a manufacturer of SLR cameras would also be the right brand for this. It would become a symbol of retro.
But it's a moot point.
But it is questionable whether Pentax and Ricoh respectively are really going "all in". It is certainly no coincidence that the announcement is so cautiously worded. For great difficulties await.
The development of the camera is probably not so much the problem. How a film camera works is well known and not particularly complicated. Provided the new Pentax doesn't have to have any modern features, it could probably be designed quite quickly and cheaply.
The problem is that the camera has to be designed in a way that is easy to understand.
The problem is the economic implementation. Despite all the enthusiasm, an analogue camera will be a niche product. Pentax would have to produce them in small numbers. That makes equipment expensive.
But it is not only the number of units of the finished product on which the price depends. It is also the number of individual parts in the device. And that's where things look bleak. Who still makes backs for analogue cameras today? Tension levers? Film transport motors? The whole industry behind analogue cameras simply doesn't exist any more.
In Pentax's favour is the fact that the manufacturer already operates in this difficult environment with its SLR cameras anyway. Pentax knows the kind of problem and perhaps also has solutions for it. In any case, it is more likely than some greenhorn who does a crowdfunding project out of spontaneous enthusiasm and then realises that there is a reason why his idea has not yet been realised. As I said: Pentax would be the right brand for an analogue camera.
Titelbild: shutterstock.com/Svetlana Lukienko
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
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