Pentax Film Project: Lost Engineering Being Reborn

New Details Released on the Pentax Film Project

By cjfeola in Photo Industry News on May 22, 2023

Pentax is developing a compact, fixed lens 35mm camera with an “old-style, SLR-type hand-wound mechanism” to wind the film, according to Takeo “TKO” Suzuki, the product planner and designer for the Pentax Film Project.

TKO described the progress and struggles with the new camera in Film Project Story No. 2, released May 11. But first he said he, his team and Pentax have been overwhelmed by a world-wide outpouring of support for the Film Project.

“Since this project was first announced, a number of corporations, individuals and photographers have voiced their eagerness to work with us. There are many, many people out there who value the film photography culture, and are willing to work for it. These are the people who have offered their assistance to us. I was very surprised and delighted – I actually shed a few tears of joy!

“What we found out was that we weren’t alone and that we had partners in our mission. It was a great encouragement to us. We received many comments from them, including a wish for the development of a successor to the Pentax LX and a hope for the revival of the Pentax 67, and a desire for a fully mechanical SLR camera.  I’d love to have such cameras, too!”

So would we! In fact, in last month’s Pentax Forum article "Bring Back the Beast" we called for new versions of the K1000 and 6x7. We would definitely take a LX, though.

But that’s all in the future. TKO said Pentax is currently developing a compact camera with a fixed lens, which will be the first film camera to be born from this project. They are working on a completely new model, though it may use some existing parts.

“Our goal is to develop a camera that younger photographers will really enjoy,” TKO said. “We want to develop a camera that makes taking photos a joy, and that’s a pleasure to carry around every day.”

TKO explains the Pentax Film Project

TKO explained that research and feedback from all those interested in the Film Project made it clear that such joy is anchored by the tactile experience of manually winding film. That led them to center their design around an SLR style hand-wound, lever-action mechanism.

“The action of winding film doesn’t exist in digital cameras,” said TKO. “We believe its this action that provides the joy and satisfaction of actually manipulating a film camera.”

That led them to reject simpler mechanisms and motor drives. Both would have been cheaper and easier, but neither would have fulfilled the Film Project’s goals.

“We wanted to incorporate the old-style, SLR-type hand-wound mechanism into a modern compact camera. We wanted the film to be wound with the sound of a ratchet wheel.”

The good news was that Pentax had plans for such mechanisms in the archives.

The bad news is that those plans were drawn on paper. The measurements from those paper plans had to be laid out into three-dimensional Computer-Assisted Design (CAD) data.

The bottom line was no one on the team really understood the plans. Fortunately, they knew people who did.

“When our development team held an in-house meeting to check on the camera structure, there were some parts that we believed were simply unnecessary. Even after lengthy deliberations, we always came to this conclusion. However, when we met with retired engineers who were more experienced with film cameras, they let us know that we didn’t understand anything, because those parts were most essential to the mechanism. They even made a joke of our ignorance and misunderstanding.”

Optical work at Pentax Tokyo

As work progresses on this 35mm film compact, TKO and his team are already planning more advanced future models. That’s another reason for putting this time and effort into the winding mechanism.  “This gives us the possibility of installing the same mechanism in an SLR camera body when we decide to produce a film-format SLR in the future.

Computer-Assisted Design for Film Advance Mechanism

The hand-drawn plans for that mechanism can be seen in a second video Pentax released May 12, documenting film photographer Shiori Iwakura's visit with her LX and SMC 50mm F/1.4 to Pentax's facility in Tokyo. Along with the archive of hand-drawn plans, this video shows the new CAD designs and enough Pentax bodies, shells and parts to outfit a museum.

TKO wrapped up his video presentation in enthusiastic English: “It’s time for film! Pentax! Pentax! Pentax!”