Equipment

Posted by icrewzbot

The Pentax 17 has been out a couple of months and has sold out around the world. Initial price was $499, now its $550 plus $55 in sales tax. Cute camera but its, for the most part, a toy camera with minimal features. Pentax will likely sell 5-7 millions of these toy cameras. There is a Pentax 17 for sale for $550. The seller discovered what I knew when it was introduced, it's an over-priced toy camera that produces substandard images. It uses a very primitive zone focusing system so you never know if your picture is in focus. Don't have buyers remorse. LOMO did the same thing with their plastic FLY camera. It sold out at $475. No one is building professional film cameras, its far to costly. You really have to buy used if you want a pro film camera. Please leave a cell phone number and name as I am getting tons of spammers and phishing emails. Serious inquiries, please. This camera was manufactured by Konica. Konica is likely to be the world's first camera manufacturer, established in 1873, long before Canon, Nikon, Leica, and Hasselblad. In more recent times, they were known for 35mm rangefinders and SLR's. Always known for superb optics. Some of their lenses sell for thousands of dollars. Konica has also made a variety of medium format cameras, primarily sold in Japan. The Koni Omega 200, Black Beauty, given the 6 X7 format, the sharpness of the lens produce images as sharp or sharper than Hasselblad's legendary 80mm Planar lens. Over the years, Konica has had joint ventures with Mamiya and Minolta. This camera was developed at a time when they were working with Mamiya. Most of these stayed in Japan where they were used for newspaper, magazine, and fashion photography. I am including the padded carry bag. Just add 120 film. If you're into film photography, after a while using a 35mm camera, you're probably inclined to want to move up to a medium format camera. As they say, go BIG or go home. For decades, medium format cameras were almost exclusively purchased by professional photographers, far less that 1% of the film cameras purchased. Typically photographers would spend at least a month's wages to purchase a medium format camera and one lens. With the advent of digital, pros unloaded their medium format cameras because their workflow demanded the speed and ease of digital images. 14 years ago or so, you'd do a search for medium format cameras and hundreds would show up, now it a dozen or so. These are disappearing. With the worldwide resurgence in film photography, the hunt is on for medium format cameras. I checked some California resources and they are either sold out or have bare bones inventory, check Relic Cameras in Long Beach, SoCal Cameras online, and Samy's. There is some good news for people looking for a 35mm camera, for the first time in 20 plus years, Pentax is saying they'll introduce a new SLR film camera. I presume it will have to cost at least $500 to be profitable. They are foreseeing the future, there will be a time when we'll run out of working film cameras. No one is talking about making a new, professional medium format film camera because the cost would be so much higher. The film plane is actually the equivalent to a massive sensor, probably equal to 100+ megapixels. You've watched all the YouTube videos and noted many influencers have a Mamiya 7 ii. Now you want a medium format 6X7 rangefinder too! You check around and find there are none to be had locally at any price. Online, they're selling for $5000 to $6000. All hope is not lost. There are other options. The Koni-Omega Rapid 200 is a rangefinder, made in Japan with superb Japanese craftsmanship. It is a 6 X 7 format. One fantastic feature of this camera not found on most medium format cameras is the film back is interchangeable so you can have multiple backs preloaded with different color, black and white, and transparency films. You can change mid roll. The Koni Omega has a very large viewfinder and strong focusing patch for easy focusing and frame lines for various lenses. The large hand grip indicates that this camera was meant to be a hand carry camera, not designed to sit in a studio. You can easily add a neck strap if you want to have your hands free. These were primarily designed to compete with large format press cameras like the Graflex Pacemakers. Instead of the slowness of large format cameras where film needs to be hand loaded into film magazines in complete darkness and you needed to reload after every shot, you needed to have a darkroom to develop your own film and make your own enlargements. the Rapid M could quickly fire off 10 or 20 shots on a roll and produced a negative nearly as large as a 4x5 camera. Any film lab would process the film and make enlargements, and now they scan the images for you. The camera has interchangeable lenses, 58mm, 90mm, 135mm, and 180mm are all available for this camera. The lenses are very sharp. All stellar performers. The back has a unique pressure plate that moves into place to provide a very flat film plane. Most of the Rapid 200 's stayed in Japan for newspaper press photography and then eventually fashion, magazine, and wedding photography. They were considered the top of the line with the features of interchangeable backs and lenses. Those have mostly been used to death as evidenced by the dents, paint wear, and dirt and grime. Further, exposure to the elements of humidity in Japan has destroyed the internal workings of these cameras. Rust on the steel parts, oxidation on the aluminum parts. Very, very few made it to the U.S. as new cameras. Fewer are found in working condition. My Rapid 200 made it to California where I used it when I was vacationing in the mountains. I am older and don't see me on anymore Sierra camping trips so with the greatest reluctance I've decided to let this go. I haven't used this is several years so I thinks its time. I would consider it in above average condition for a 50 year old camera. Len is 90mm f3.5, very sharp optics. Speeds from 1 second to 1/500. It is an alloy/brass body so heavier than the plastic bodied Mamiya 7 ii. Heavier yes, but extremely durable. Things break on plastic cameras and parts are extremely hard, if not impossible to find. There is no light meter, you'll need to download a free light meter app on your cellphone. This is a fully manual camera, no electronics to fail. Price is $450, firm. Someone asked if I had the dark slide to go with the camera. Yes, I do have it and it is included. It is necessary to change the backs or lenses. Camera is sold as is, no warranty expressed or implied. Please ignore: Agfa Optima 1a Agfa Optima Flash Sensor Alpa-Reflex Camera Argus C3 Asahi Pentax Asahiflex B Balda Baldessa C Calypso (camera) Canon Canonflex Canon Pellix Canon AE1 Program Chinon Genesis IV Contarex Contax T Corfield Periflex Cosina CT-1 D Dirkon E Yashica Electro 35 F Franka Kamerawerk Fuji TX-1 Fuji TX-2 H Hasselblad XPan Hasselblad XPan II I Instant return mirror K Kine Exakta Kodak 35 Kodak 35 Rangefinder Kodak Retina Kodak Retina IIIS Kodak Retina Reflex III Kodak Retina Reflex IV Kodak Retina Reflex S Kodak Retinette Konica C35 AF L Leica CL Leica M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 Rangefinder Leica copies Leica R-E Leica R3 Leica R4 Leica R4s Leica R5 Leica R6 Leica R6.2 Leica R7 Leica R8 Leica R9 Leica RE Leica Standard Leicaflex Leidolf Leitz Minolta CL Yashica Lynx M Mecaflex Minolta 9xi Minolta 35 Minolta 5000i Minolta 7000i Minolta Maxxum 4 Minolta Maxxum 7000 Minolta Maxxum 9000 Minolta SR-2 Minolta SR-T 101 Minolta TC-1 Minolta TC-1 Limited Minolta X-1 Minolta X-570 Minolta X-700 Minolta XD-7 Minolta XE Minolta XE-5 Minolta XG-M Miranda T (camera) N Neoca 2s Nikon (camera) Nikon FE Nikon FE2 Nikon I (camera) Nikon M Nikon S Nikon S-mount Nikon S4 O Olympus Pen F Olympus Superzoom 120TC Olympus XA P Pentax K1000 Pentax LX Pentax ME Pentax ME F Pentax ME Super Pentax MG Pentax MX Pentax MZ-S Pentax SF7 Pentax SFX Pentax Spotmatic Pentax Super-A Pentax ZX-50 Praktiflex S Sport (camera) T Tenax II Tessina Topcon RE Super V Voigtländer Bessamatic Voigtländer Bessamatic CS Voigtländer Bessamatic deLuxe Voigtländer Bessamatic m Voigtländer Ultramatic Voigtländer Ultramatic CS Mamiya 645 Series Mid-Range: Pentax 6×7 / Pentax 6×7 MLU Premium: Hasselblad 500 Series Twin-Lens Reflex (TLR) Cameras Budget: Minolta Autocord Series Mid-Range: Mamiya C330 Premium: Rolleiflex 2.8/3.5 "Letter Model" Series Rangefinder Cameras Budget: Koni-Omega Rapid Series Mid-Range: Fuji GS645 Professional Series Premium: Plaubel Makina 67 / Plaubel Makina W67

May 11, 2026 $450.00

Location: Los Angeles, CA

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