I wanted to share my opinion on the GR3x, which I bought in 2022, a couple of months after its release, and which was my favorite camera for four years.
First of all, I think GR cameras are irreplaceable, and all attempts to build GR killers out of small mirrorless cameras and Chinese lenses are pointless, they just won't have the same functionality and ease of use that the GR gives you, not to mention the most convenient snap focus mode. And if you do manage to build a "GR killer", it's only because a real GR person simply wouldn't be able to get the most out of it given their skills and needs.
The camera turned out to be truly irreplaceable for me, but at the same time it was the most fragile and problematic camera I've ever owned.
I'll start with the bad:

• Dust gets on the sensor after about six months of shooting in normal conditions and carrying it in a camera bag without a case, a JJC sticky filter helps reduce the amount of it significantly. Sensor cleaning is expensive, ridiculously expensive, so by my second year of owning it I had already learned to do it myself in about 20 minutes.
• The rear dial on my GR3x would periodically stick and was replaced under warranty. The replacement dial also started sticking and phantom-clicking, but less often, so I would just blow it out with a blower from time to time.
• After 3 months of use I started getting some weird glitches, they fixed it under warranty by resetting the firmware. But I was without the camera for a month and a half.
• The original decorative ring was very easy to lose, and all the third-party ones are metal on the inside instead of plastic like the original, so once the paint wears off from putting them on, they start shorting the contacts for the Tele/Wide converters and the camera randomly switches into those modes. I couldn't figure this problem out for a whole year, and all I needed to do was replace the decorative ring :)
• Third-party decorative rings don't have a spring and wear down the pin, so the metal shavings get inside the pin and at some point the filter just stopped coming off. I managed to carefully cut it apart.
• The contacts inside the battery compartment deform over time under the pressure of the battery and the camera starts shutting off when shaken. It can be fixed by slightly bending the contacts back, but you have to be careful not to overdo it. Third-party batteries are slightly shorter than the original ones and the contact is even worse with them, but if the original battery works properly and the Chinese one loses contact, I wouldn't recommend modifying anything inside the camera.
• Weak battery life, but that's forgivable considering the size and the fact that you can carry spare batteries.
• After 3 years of use, the shutter button started misclicking and sometimes required more pressure. I found a replacement on AliExpress and asked a friend to solder it in, since the official service center turned out to be capable only of doing paid diagnostics, finding nothing, and then offering to replace the entire board.
• Another six months later, the power button also started triggering randomly on its own. I couldn't find the exact same button, but I measured the original one and found an excellent equivalent at a radio components store.
• Weak autofocus, but this wasn't a big problem for me, since I saw it as a nice addition to the snap focus mode.
• Towards the end of the fourth year, a whistling sound started coming from inside the focusing module.
• The stabilizer started making weird knocking sounds when I was simply walking around with the camera turned on in my hand.
• I got a "Lens Error", the official service center once again charged me for diagnostics and simply suggested replacing the entire optical block. In the end, a private repairman brought the camera back to life, it turned out to be a partially broken flex cable inside the lens assembly.

I fixed the camera and sold it after 50 thousand shots, replacing it with a Fuji XE5, which I happily sold a couple of months later and got a classic GR3 instead :)

Now for the good stuff:

• The lens, sensor, ND filter, stabilizer, macro mode, all of it works really well and allows you to get seriously good images out of such a tiny camera.
• The way it works. It was very convenient for me to save 3 presets to the User modes so I could quickly jump from a fast shutter speed to a slow one (or any other similar cases), instead of manually changing every setting each time and sometimes risking missing a shot. This is also where I'd mention the ability to remap the buttons and generally customize the camera's controls to your liking. It is made for photographers.
• The SN mode was a revelation for me. I already knew about hyperfocal distance, but this camera taught me to love it so much that now I look at the autofocus on my Sony a7c2 and wonder why it's even needed there. The depth of field scale, the ability to quickly change the focusing distance, or even set it before turning the camera on if it's saved in User1 User2 User3, all of this lets you shoot instantly instead of having to set up the camera beforehand.
• The size. Strangers don't take this camera seriously, which also opens a lot of doors, and I literally carry it with me everywhere, even if I'm just going to take the trash out for a couple of minutes. You always have the opportunity to take a shot. You can always operate the camera with one hand, changing any of the available settings.

For me, this camera was a real revelation, and after shooting with another system for a couple of months trying to find an alternative to a compact notebook, I ran back to Ricoh, but this time, as I said, the GR3.

I've wanted to share my experience for a long time, hope this post was useful.
The limit for photos in a post is 20, so I uploaded more of them to this Flickr album:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCZaiL
Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'd like to share some photos along with my impressions after a year and a half of using the Voigtländer Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5.

I've been using it on a Sony A7C II with a K&F Concept adapter. I also bought a Haoge hood that mounts to the original filter threads, and I ended up using a Benro protective filter because I couldn't fit the hood over my K&F Concept filters.

I honestly don't think this lens has any real downsides, and I don't find direct comparisons all that meaningful. The Color-Skopar is all about character. If you're after a perfectly clean, clinical image, there are plenty of better choices. The main appeal of this lens is its rendering and incredibly compact size.

Here are a few things I've noticed after using it for quite a while:

• The focus throw is very short, and the focusing tab is perfectly positioned under my index finger. It's one of the most enjoyable manual-focus lenses I've used. Since it's a true mechanical manual-focus lens, it's also great for zone or hyperfocal focusing. Before I installed the hood, I would often get the first joint of my finger in the frame, but I eventually adjusted my grip, and the hood naturally helps prevent that.
• It focuses slightly past infinity. I think that's mostly due to the adapter and the thermal tolerance built into the lens rather than the lens itself. I shimmed the adapter with a few thin metal shims, which improved infinity focus without causing problems in either hot or cold weather. Interestingly, my Nokton 35mm f/1.4—which mounts directly to Sony FE without an adapter—also focuses slightly past infinity.
• Even wide open, bright point light sources produce distinct sunstars rather than the soft blobs I'm used to seeing with most lenses. I'm not sure why; perhaps it's because the lens isn't being used on its native mount.
• Contrast drops quite noticeably in strong backlighting, although the hood helps reduce the effect.
• In terms of sharpness, it's very close to the Sony FE 35mm f/1.8 at the same aperture, although the Color-Skopar has noticeably stronger vignetting in the corners.
• The rendering has a lot of character. The images feel lively, organic, and anything but sterile.
• It's a tiny lens and an absolute joy to carry around. When my GR IIIx was being repaired, I happily used it as my everyday camera, relying on the same zone-focusing techniques. If the scene is worth capturing, this lens does a wonderful job of bringing it to life.

I've uploaded many more photos to my Flickr album if you'd like to see more examples.

Thanks for reading! I'd really appreciate any feedback or hearing about your own experience with this lens.

A year ago, I bought the Pentax 17 as a small everyday film camera. Since then, I've shot only nine rolls with it.

I know that for the same money I could have bought any number of great used rangefinders, but I simply didn't want to deal with a 40-year-old camera—looking for repair technicians, replacing light seals, wondering how to service another aging lens, and so on. I just wanted something I could pick up and shoot film with from time to time.

After a year of using it, here are my personal pros and cons.

Pros

• Brand-new camera.
• Sharp lens.
• Excellent metering.
• Great ergonomics and intuitive controls. The shooting modes are easy to understand and pleasant to use.
• The shooting mode logic is surprisingly well thought out. For example, if you want a smaller aperture for zone focusing or hyperfocal shooting, you can switch to Night mode, and the camera will favor a slower shutter speed while stopping the lens down. Conversely, if you want a faster shutter speed, switching to Bokeh mode encourages the camera to open the aperture as much as possible (within the limits of your exposure compensation, which is adjustable).

Cons

• Once, the focus ring jammed for no apparent reason. It has never happened again, but I did find a few Reddit posts describing the same issue.
• It's very easy to accidentally rotate the mode dial while advancing the film.
• If you hold the camera in the "textbook" way, the first joint of your index finger can easily end up in the frame. Fortunately, it's easy to adjust your grip.
• I don't really understand why the camera advances through so many frames when loading film before reaching frame 0. In practice, you can stop advancing about four frames before the counter reaches zero. Or at least use those frames for actual photos, since they often end up only slightly fogged.
• In the dark, the indicator LEDs next to the viewfinder are surprisingly bright and can be distracting.
• In Auto mode, the camera automatically sets itself to the hyperfocal position, but you can still rotate the focus ring even though it no longer does anything.
• I'm not sure why the shutter button is two-stage when there's no autofocus. A half-press simply moves the lens to the selected focus distance, and only a full press takes the picture. The half-press doesn't lock exposure, so I don't really see the point. It would have made more sense for the lens to move to the selected distance immediately. At first, I missed a few important moments because I instinctively treated it like a typical scale-focus or rangefinder camera, where pressing the shutter immediately takes the picture.
• The parallax correction frame lines are decent, but at infinity the camera captures roughly 20% more than what the largest frame shows.

Despite all that, I've gotten used to the camera and genuinely enjoy shooting with it. For me, it has been a great way to keep film photography as a hobby without having to deal with the maintenance and unpredictability of vintage equipment.

I've attached a selection of photos I took with the Pentax 17 over the past year, along with a link to my Flickr album, where you can see more images as well as the film stocks used for each roll.

Thanks for reading! I'd really appreciate any feedback or hearing about your own experience with the Pentax 17.