In spite of the new and unique features, it cannot replace my fastest snapshot camera, the Leica if with the voigtlander 25mm snapshot. I really enjoyed the novelty of the Pentax 17. It has a lot going for it. However, when you look past the novelty (which will eventually fade), the Leica is easier to use, more reliable, makes better images to by virtue of the larger negative.

Pros of the new Pentax 17

• It is new!
• Size and weight. I can wrap the neck strap around the bag strap and the camera can hang without feeling distracting. I would not do this with my smallest Leica combo.
• Film economy. The half frame means I get approximately 76 frames on a roll.
• Options to attach the strap in two different orientations. On the Leica, i add a clip on the bottom where i can easily and a shoulder strap.
• Zone focusing. That being said, the zone focusing is a bit better on the Leica with the Voigtlander 25mm snap focus which have indents at 1 meter, 1.5 meter, 3 meters so I can focus by feel.
• Interesting format where the default is portrait. I get to compose differently.
• The grip and finish of camera is a wash between the Pentax and Leica. I do like the titanium finish of the Pentax and the hand grip. The battery screw isn’t uncomfortable to me. The Leica has the timeless vulcanite that it is known for.

• Film counter is too small and hard to read. I have to angle my head at a specific angle from the side to read the counter. Single digit frame numbers can’t be read at all. When you get past the 10th frame it becomes easier to read the first digit but the ones one slightly obstructed moving in difficult to get nice the ones digit.
• Mushy shutter button. There have been frames where I was not sure whether the shutter was released.
• There is a funny hole for the shutter release cable. And I’m not able to use it with a soft release.
• On / Off button. When compared to the Nikon slrs where closing the film advance turns the camera off and prevents the shutter from being released, the extra button on the Pentax is vestigial. The Leica doesn’t have one or need one. Pentax had to add one because they couldn’t integrate it into the film advance and they needed a way to prevent the meter from draining the battery. The on off button on the Pentax is halfhearted. By trying to borrow design elements from Leica and Nikon, it accomplished nothing worthwhile.
• Mode button is easy to knock. A lock would have been useful. There were times when I looked down and noticed that I was in the wrong mode, such as bokeh on night mode. I lost frames because I was in the wrong mode.
• When you use a step up ring (40.5 to 46mm), the step up ring blocks the focus ring.
• Battery cover and unconventional battery size
• Max shutter speed 1/320 speed. It gets harder to use my default film on 1600 during the day. I had to hear this online. I couldn’t find it in the manual.
• No shutter speed dial. This is self explanatory.
• The LED lights are distracting and difficult to understand. I think I worked it out. Red means the flash is charging and is charged. Blue is the show a low shutter speed warning.
• No hot shoe or cold shoe.

• Not having any filter thread is a dealbreaker for me. I use coloured filters regularly for black and white photography. I use them in lieu of any lens cap and the orange filter brings down the exposure to a manageable level on bright sunny days.