I heart my Pentax
Homage to P30t.
Recently I saw a question on Instagram about people’s ideal analogue camera. My mind immediately went to my favourite 35mm- my pentax p30t.
The p30t was produced from 1990-1997. Its made primarily from plastic unlike its slightly better appointed big brother the p30n which is metal bodied. It has DX coding and no way to set the ISO. (There is a bypass for this but I’ve never bothered using it as I like the ease of popping a film in and going). It has DOF preview and includes a funky focusing screen which is a split prism, I find it really easy to use. There’s no flash but I don’t really miss it and with the hotshoe I can stick one on if I need it.
I spotted my P30t on a late night trawl on Etsy, I am an unashamed scroller on etsy and go down a multitude of rabbit holes before realising at 3am that I probably don’t need a bespoke camera strap for £60.
The Pentax looked exactly like I wanted a 35mm camera to look. Dark, handsome, boxy. It was the camera I drew when I was a kid. It was the camera. I did some brief googling research and saw words like “reliable” and “workhorse” I fired off the order at 1am and checked the post constantly. My Pentax appeared and from the moment I opened the box it was love. I’m one of those people who form an attachment to inanimate objects and boy, I fell for my camera.
Its a lovely weight, it has a “I’m here and I’m serious” weight. Its chonky and unapologetic. It feels like I could mine ore with it and it would only require a light dusting with a rag. I like this sturdiness as I can be hard on my equipment and flimsy stuff does not last long in my world. The pentax has been my daily camera for around a year now and I’ve chucked it in bags, on grass, on tables, into footwells and its still going strong. My p30t has shot weddings, dogs and graveyards with absolute style and reliability, when I want to know my photos will come out, I pack the p30t.
It has style. It’s black and its square and its camera shaped. It looks awesome. It’s shutter slam sounds like a medieval joust and you are under no illusion that you have taken a picture, nor is anyone within 12ft of you. But I like that, its definitive. It makes capturing an image a *thing* We live in a world of digital, shoot as many as you like and the pentax brings me back to actually thinking about what I’m photographing.
Shooting wise it’s never let me down. It produces crisp clean images on my favourite filford HP5 film. Writing this I’ve realised that I’ve never tried the P30t with colour film, This might be a project for the future but for now I’m happy wandering new graveyards with the workhorse increasing my neck strain.