I’ve been anxious to test Kodak Ektar 100 in the Pentax 17 and see how it stacks up against Kodak Ektachrome 100, which has been my favorite so far. After one roll, the answer is it stacks up very well! I’ll shoot more before I finally decide, but this is a very, very good film in the Pentax 17. The color palette is a little less punchy, but excellent by any measure. Overall the image quality is about as good as Kodak Ektachrome 100. Meanwhile, the film is a little cheaper, while C41 processing is about a third cheaper than E6 slide development. I’ll certainly be shooting more Ektra 100 in my Pentax 17.
The camera is named for the 17mm width of a half-frame of 35mm film, following in the Pentax tradition of naming cameras after their format, such as the 67, 645 and Auto 110. It features a newly-developed 25mm F3.5 lens, which is the equivalent to a 37mm lens on full-frame 35mm. The lens, which uses three elements in three groups, is based on the optical design of the Pentax Espio Mini while using the angle of view and focal length of the Ricoh Auto Half camera. Pentax improved on these classic designs by treating the lens with its modern HD (High Definition) coating to optimize the clarity and sharpness of the half-frame photos.
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