What made you want to try half-frame, and what was your first half-frame camera?

The Pentax 17 and the Pentax 17.

Growing up, my parents had a Pentax K1000, usually paired with the trusty 50mm f/2 lens. I used it periodically, and was always smitten with the hefty mechanical feel and the precision of the machine. They gave the camera to me when I finished college and moved out of state. I’ve since stuck with the Pentax K-mount family, expanding my lens selection and adding an LX. When the Pentax 17 was announced, it seemed like a great blend of some point&shoot features and manual controls, a nice friend for the more intense SLRs. After the many CLAs needed to keep the older Pentax cameras running, it was very appealing that Pentax 17 was brand new with a warranty.

Now the 17 is the camera I take everywhere. It’s light, but sturdy enough to throw in my backpack every day. The shutter is quiet, but has a metallic clack to it, and the little film advance lever is ever so satisfying. I enjoy the zone focusing, and I’ve gotten pretty good at eyeballing the close distances, 0.25 and 0.5m, where the out-of-focus penalty is much higher.

What is it you like most about Half-frame?

Shooting full-frame 35mm, I was used to the feeling that each frame was precious, that each photo must be deserving of the inherent cost. Half frame frees me from that overthinking. On a standard 36 frame roll, I’m regularly fitting 78 photos. I tend to have more fun when I take more photos.

I find myself just going for it, trying shots I’m not convinced will work out, documenting daily life on film in a way I wasn’t before. Many shots are just for me to learn how the camera and film will see something I appreciate. Pentax 17 does an excellent job of making sure every frame turns out and the lens is so sharp, it’s often hard to notice the halved resolution.

On the topic of diptychs: I always go for minimum effort in photo post-processing. I enjoy seeing the imperfections of film, so I rarely clean up photos after the fact. When shooting, I usually don’t plan for diptychs, and the local camera shop scans are always single shots, so they stay single. Things are different, however, when I develop and scan B&W film at home. My minimum effort camera scanning setup has a field of view wider than full-frame, so the diptychs just happen naturally.

Favourite subject and/or Half-frame photo?

My most consistent subjects tend to be cats, cars, and buildings, but I’ll photograph anything if the light hits it just right.

Your top tip/s for shooting half frame photos?

There’s no reason not to take the shot when the cost of failure is as small as these negatives.