It will be 850€. As the Pentax 17 is 550€ that'll be 800$. At least it'll have full metal body and full manual controls. But...for me *everything* depends on the auto focus of the 35AF. If that isn't really fast and good, all those 800$ won't do you much if you really want to go for snapshots or street photography and such. The Pentax 17 "at least" has a zone focus where you can set that range. But the 17 has a forced auto exposure, making you wait, just like a good auto focus makes you wait. I guess it's all about trade-offs. There won't be the perfect camera lol
I guess they knew they'll pretty much sell the first batch at almost any price. They looked into the community online and film camera collectors and knew, they all will buy. Just look at the amount of people who "only" do street photography as a hobby with a Leica M6. I also hope for a lower price. 300$ is the price I would go for. I think for the Pentax 17 we have to compare the price more with Kodak's new Ektar35N. In costs 80€ in Europe, don't know about the US. But it has part glas lens apparently and Kodak built in bulb mode. But the camera still is in the range of "reusables", full plastic, no control. If we go from that, the gap between 80 and 550€ for a plastic camera without controls and a "real" camera on the other end, it doesn's sound that much anymore. Also: The competition Pentax is having right now is Lomography. They also sell plastic cameras, but some with better quality, like glas lenses and different manual controls. Those Lomography cameras already go for over 300€, and I wouldn't call them "real" cameras. Then there is FilmNeverDie in Australia. They will come out with a camera this year aswell. They started by aiming at offering a new Contax lol full metal body. In the end, their camera - as it looks like - will be a motorized film camera model you can buy on Alibaba from China. They just made a metal *front* plate, the back is cheap plastic still. Also, apparently no controls or focus. They still don't tell what kind of focus they will deliver: Either a second lens for other focus areas or some kind of plates in the back that you have to push to change focus manually. Anyhow, why I am writing this LOL: They want 250€ for this or 200$. I also find the Pentax way too expensive. But looking at today's market, Pentax really know what they are doing here. Because all the other players either have similiar high production costs for the plastic they deliver, or they realy rake in a lot of profits.
I have always and will always shoot film. I have for all that time been extremely wary of plastic cameras, all of mine are either predominantly metal or metal and hardwood. I won't even buy the later Hasselblad plastic housed lenses. 500 is too much. given the cost of film. It's never been cheap to get the good stuff, and that's what you'll need to get anything close to a decent image. They tried, but this is competing against mobile phones and it'll lose.
Is it worth the money? No. If you want to shoot 35mm film and like the Pentax brand, buy an old Pentax MX (or something similar from other manufacturers) to get a camera with dramatically more capability that you can sell for what you paid for it if you decide you don't like film.
