Pentax's New Film Cameras: A Realistic Perspective on Range, Timelines, and Expectations

In my previous blog posts, I have waxed poetic and shown my exuberant joy at the Pentax announcement regarding their ongoing project to get back into film camera production.

In the spirit of the holidays, I even went as far as sharing my top-5 wishlist for Pentax. These included the Pentax 67, the Pentax 645, and the Pentax Espio line of point-and-shoot cameras.

To usher in the new year, I feel like it is time to come to terms with reality and discuss what is likely the feasible and most realistic outcome for Pentax. Which design concept is Pentax likely to go with? What product timelines can we consider as realistic for Pentax?

One note of caution, this is all speculative, of course, but these analyses and predictions are based on my best judgement, after considering the current market dynamics, the economic risk factors and the following 3 determining factors associated with a project of this scale:

FACTOR 1: THE FATE OF LEGACY FILM CAMERA MANUFACTURING PLANTS AND MACHINERY

The #1 factor that will determine the range of film cameras Pentax will develop as well as the timelines is the fate of the manufacturing plants and key equipment and machinery that was used in the legacy film camera production. As the demand for film cameras declined sharply in the late 1990s to early 2000s, and with the widespread adoption of digital cameras, there was a massive trend of discontinuation of many film camera models and the closure of the manufacturing plants that produced them. The camera companies had to pivot and repurpose their plants to produce other types of products such as digital cameras or shut down operations altogether. One has to consider that from the perspective of most camera manufacturers, there was no coming back to film, the digital revolution was all the rave, and film was dead.

Very dead.

Some manufacturers like Pentax likely adapted their tooling and machinery to producing digital cameras instead, while others such as Kyocera/Yashica exited the camera market entirely. Other manufacturing plants that produced film cameras were also repurposed or sold to other companies. For example, in 2021, Nikon announced that it was closing all domestic manufacturing of SLRs, however adding the caveat that the company may resume manufacturing of SLRs in the future, therefore implying that they would somehow maintain the production line equipment for a future re-entry into the film market.

That caveat is the conditionality on which the film revival is based on. How many of these companies had the vision, and the wherewithal to preserve their equipment despite the plant closures? Not many, I would presume. Pentax’ specific situation is quite unknown, considering that the last film camera it made was the Pentax MZ-S, and that was discontinued as far back as 2006. The key point here is that Pentax may not be able to revert to producing old classics without completely rebuilding plants and manufacturing equipment, which leads me to the second factor.

FACTOR 2: CURRENT CAMERA MANUFACTURING FACILITIES AND CAPABILITIES

The second factor to consider is that so much has happened since the days of the old Pentax cameras such as the K1000 and the Spotmatic. Design concepts of film cameras from most of the major brands had very much evolved from the heavy duty, mostly-metal behemoths of the 1960s and 1970s, as in Canon F-1, Pentax K1000, and Nikorrmat FT, to the arguably more modern designs consisting of mostly plastic bodies and lightweight material, such as in the case of the Canon EOS IV, Pentax MZ-S and Nikon N65.

Film camera design had evolved even prior to their discontinuation

The main reason for this evolution was the fact that camera manufacturers were hedging their bets.

How do you continue to produce film cameras, which were declining in demand, while manufacturing new lines of digital cameras, which were innovating rapidly? The obvious solution was to unify the design concepts, such that parts could be interchanged between their digital and film camera offerings, hence enabling one single plant to produce several SKUs of cameras at reduced cost. This design ideology is common in film and digital cameras produced around the same period. For example, the NIkon D1 digital camera and the Nikon F100 film camera, both in production circa 2003, had very similar designs.

The key point here is that investing in a line of new film cameras for any manuafcturer isn’t going to be a walk in the park. There are immense risks associated with this venture, and there is a great incentive to not stray too far from their current digital camera design concept. Don’t get me wrong, film is resurging now, but no where near its height of popularity (at least not yet), to motivate a full-on investment into the old classic designs.

FACTOR 3: BRAIN DRAIN

The final big factor to consider is the current state of know-how about film camera technology and manufacturing process. Sure, the companies still likely own their patents and documentation on the parts and processes, but the human component, that know-how and expertise is largely non-existent at this time. This is because most camera engineers and designers have either sadly retired or passed on.

Mr. Takeo Suzuki aka TKO, the product planning and designer of the new film project for Pentax alluded to this fact in the announcement video. In it, he mentioned a current effort being undertaken to dialog with the retired film camera engineers, and to create avenues for information-sharing between the old and new-school engineers, who often have little knowledge or expertise in film camera manufacturing.

Pentax is doing the right thing.

Without this process of knowledge and information transfer, there will not be much hope for a film photography revival. The key point to note here is that any new cameras developed will have to be based on the reality that the expertise will likely not be top-notch at the start for a project like this, and the companies (Pentax in this case), will have little choice but to play it safe.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: MY PREDICTIONS

Based on the aforementioned factors, here are my predictions for the various formats of film cameras Pentax will likely develop, as well as the possible timelines:

Medium Format: Pentax will likely play it safe with the design of any new cameras in this category. As much as I would like to see the Pentax 67 re-issued, there is unfortunately not much hope for that particular model, as it would involve parts which are quite different from its current line of cameras. Thus, for medium format, the likeliest option will be a redesigned Pentax 645. This is because that camera design lends well to the design of the Pentax 645Z digital camera. Pentax could more easily redesign the Pentax 645 in order to utilize the parts of the Pentax 645z medium format digital camera.

SLRs: The old-school design of the Pentax K1000 and the Spotmatic are likely not coming back. There is no incentive for Pentax to invest and risk that much to produce cameras that are so diverse from its current offering of digital cameras, unless of course Pentax preserved their manufacturing equipment from back in the day, which I highly doubt.

In my view, however, the potential SLR options actually do present the most exciting prospects.

The safest route for Pentax will be one that more likely resembles its current crop of digital cameras. Imagine a semi or fully-automatic film camera designed in the form of the Pentax KF digital camera!

Another likely more feasible route will be to revamp the Pentax MZ-50, for example, using the very similar body type of the Pentax APS-C digital camera.

Point-and-Shoot: This category of cameras may actually present the most trickiest problems for Pentax. Point-and-shoot film cameras have to be compact, and loaded with features, but yet reasonably affordable as well. The problem is that point and shoot / compact cameras did so quickly evolve in the digital revolution that they developed into a smaller form factor which does not lend well to reproduction in film format. Also with the advent of the smart phone, compact digital cameras did not see much success as standalone devices in competition with the smart phone camera. Thus, Pentax will have an option to retool their production line to develop a totally new design for film or modify an existing design. A look at the current Ricoh (parent company of Pentax) offerings gave me one potential camera which in my opinion would lend well to a redesign for the ESPIO film camera range. That camera is the Ricoh G900.

I can imagine Pentax re-designing this camera into one very handsome point and shoot film camera!

REALISTIC TIMELINES

The timeline for launching a new film camera line can vary greatly depending on a number of factors, including the complexity of the camera design, the availability of materials and components, and the size and capacity of the manufacturing facility. In general, it can take several years to develop a new film camera from concept to production. For example, when Canon announced the EOS 1V film SLR camera in 2000, the company had been working on the project for several years, with a team of engineers and designers dedicated to the development of the camera. Similarly, when Nikon launched the F6 film SLR camera in 2004, the company had been working on the project for over a decade, with a team of engineers and designers dedicated to the development of the camera. Based on these examples, it is realistic to expect that it could take several years for a company like Pentax to develop and launch a new film camera line. While it is not clear how long Pentax has been working on this project, it is also possible that the timelines could take months or a couple of years if more resources and manpower are devoted to the project by Pentax.

CONCLUSION

While this is all speculative, I believe that re-entering the film camera business does present some real opportunities as well as risks for Pentax. It is likely in the company’s best interest to invest in modifying their current line of digital cameras to film formats rather than re-invest in entirely new manufacturing systems and plants to handle the film cameras of old. The new breed of film cameras will therefore likely not be faithful reproductions of their old line of cameras, but rather will take a form that most of us would be familiar with. Either way, I am here for it!