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Pentax P3N / P30N / P30T

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Pentax P3N with 17mm Fish-Eye Lens

We took this Pentax P3N out for a test spin a week ago.  We had suspicions that it was misbehaving and needed to give it some actual field work to see if the issue was with the camera or was perhaps a user issue.  ⁠

⁠The P3N would not be our first choice of camera to go play with over the weekend, so we decided to make the most of it.  We grabbed this Pentax 17mm Fish-Eye lens and a roll of JCH Street Pan and decided to do the Hamilton Mountain hike in the Columbia River Gorge.  ⁠

⁠By the end of the weekend we were won over by this camera. It is simple and easy to use.  You can use it in either full metered manual, Aperture Priority, or with the right lens Full Program Auto Exposure.  There are not many bells or whistles here but the ones the camera has are just enough.⁠

⁠The Fish-Eye lens was also a lot of fun, but that generally goes without saying.  Its max f4 aperture was a bit dark for a hike in the woods, even with ISO 400 film but we made the most of it, not hesitating to drag our shutter speeds a bit.⁠

⁠JCH Street Pan is a film with a distinct look.  Lots of contrast.  Fine grain.  Sharp and crisp. You can pair it with a red filter for a dramatic look but this lens only had built-in orange and yellow filters so we shot it mostly unfiltered.  We couldn't afford the loss of light anyway.⁠

All went well.  The hike was fun.  We had a few leftover frames we finished up with a co-worker.  The camera worked flawlessly.  The lens gave a wonderful distortion to everything we saw. And that sums up the story of today's post. 

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