Photo/Illutration The Pentax 17 film camera (Provided by Ricoh Imaging Co.)

Long thought to be obsolete, film cameras are making a comeback with the newest model for sale catering to the generation that grew up during the digital camera revolution. 

Ricoh Co. on July 12 released a new film camera, the first of its kind to go on sale in Japan in 21 years.

The main target clientele of the Pentax 17, as the new camera is called, are members of what could be called the “social media generation.”

As these younger people are used to snapping photos with their smartphones, shooting with a film camera will be a novelty.

Ricoh officials are hoping the release of the new product will resonate with the retro craze of recent years and also help people rediscover the charms that are intrinsic to film camera photography.

The Pentax 17 features a fixed-focal-length lens. As was common with film cameras in days of yore, the user has to wind the film manually to advance it frame by frame.

The camera is equipped with dials for adjusting shooting modes and other settings, which offer a retro feel.

The Pentax 17 has adopted a format that uses only about half of the standard frame size on 35-millimeter film, which means it allows a commercially available 36-frame film roll to take 72 photos, or twice the images.

Ricoh has paid particular attention, with social media posts in mind, to making sure that, when the camera is positioned in a normal manner, it captures vertical-format pictures like a smartphone does.

The camera has also incorporated state-of-the-art technologies, including the use of a metering sensor for automatically adjusting exposure settings.

The developers of the Pentax 17 have taken into account camera design drawings of the past, but the new model is more than a mere reissue of an older product model.

“We are thinking of this as a new project,” said Takeo Suzuki, a Ricoh Imaging Co. worker, who was in charge of planning for the product.

STRONG DEMAND FOR FILM CAMERAS

Ricoh acquired the Pentax brand business from Hoya Corp. in 2011.

The Pentax 17 is the first new film camera model to be released under that brand since April 2003. It will be priced at around 88,000 yen ($560), including tax.

Ricoh began taking reservations for the product model in mid-June, but the company suspended doing so after it was flooded with applications.

Ricoh officials said they would resume taking new reservations as soon as they have secured a prospect for ensuring an adequate supply.

Film cameras began to be replaced rapidly by digital cameras sometime around 2000.

Still, some products of that category, such as Fujifilm Corp.’s QuickSnap single-use cameras and the same manufacturer’s Instax instant cameras, remain strongly popular with youths, partly owing to the distinctive image quality that film alone can produce.

Film cameras of major product models, however, are available mostly only in the used market. And their owners often have a hard time having them repaired because replacement parts are not available, sources said.

Digital cameras, in the meantime, also continue to face a shrinking market because camera features of smartphones are improving.

Camera & Imaging Products Association statistics show, however, that major Japanese manufacturers shipped a total of 3.01 million cameras during the first five months of this year, up 9 percent year on year.

One home electrical appliance analyst said the current rise in demand is likely only a post-pandemic rebound and is fleeting in nature.

Tomoki Tanaka, general manager of Ricoh Imaging’s Pentax Division, said, however, that he is optimistic.

“There is a certain demand that cannot be satisfied with smartphones,” Tanaka said.

The Ricoh officials said they are hoping to draw on the latest market re-entry with the new film camera model to boost potential demand for cameras at large.

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