Low light testing the Espio

The Pentax Espio 170SL comes from a long line of good quality, attractive compact cameras. It has wide range of focus and flash settings but at its widest that 35mm lens probably won't win you any landscape photography awards. It's very small considering how many features have been packed into its tiny body but shiny silver cameras are not natural street shooters. It might be ok for family parties, trips to a park so it's probably just a dad cam. The kind of camera dads like to show off about at parties but don't get to fully exploit its abilities. A couple of things make this one stand out from its brothers in the Espio range. The first is the backlit LCD screen. This is so useful when shooting at night and you need to change flash settings in a hurry. It's not too bright so shouldnt be distracting to others but is enough to read the display clearly when the sun goes down. At night the 170 mm zoom probably won't get you amazing results as the aperture number goes from f/5.6 up as far as f/12 so its low light capabilities probably wouldnt have you reaching for it on a night out. Where the 170SL does become useful is at night with a tripod where you can use the bulb mode. There might be an appropriate remote release on the market somewhere, the only ones I've seen are simple wireless controllers which trigger the shutter but don't keep it open in the way bulb mode requires. So you're back to holding the shutter release button on the camera down until you think you have the shot. On a compact of this age (2001)it's rare to find bulb mode. Even a lot of newer digital cameras don't have this feature. IT works like a treat. All of a sudden the prospect of a night out with this silver gadget becomes more interesting. #Pentax #PentaxEspio #PentaxEspio170SL #ILoveMyPentax #CompactCamera #BuyFilmNotMegapixels #StayBrokeShootFilm #BulbMode #LongExposure #LondonCameraProject

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