Praktica MTL 5B

[Peltigera]

Went to a car boot sale yesterday to avoid doing housework. Not as many cameras there as I hoped. Those that were there were priced far too high. A Canon EOS IX was being offered for £60.00. I tried to bargain downwards but the seller was adamant the camera was an expensive one. At the other end of the scale, I was looking at a Fuji rangefinder and was offered it for £30.00. It was so rough I declined the offer. The seller then offered it to me for £20.00 then £10.00. It was still very rough so I declined again. He then threw in five other cheap and rough cameras for £10.00 then £5.00. Afraid I was still not interested, so he threw in six flashguns as well for the £5.00. I nearly weakened at that point then reminded myself that something you do not want is not a bargain at any price.

Next car had a Praktica MTL 5B which was as filthy as I have ever seen any camera. However, it looked good under the dirt and came with a Helios-44M lens, a Vivitar 2x M42 converter and quite a nice camera bag - all for £15.00. That one I bought. Five minutes with cotton buds and soapy water and it looked like new. It is hard to think it had ever been used - the lens was a different matter, it has paint worn off the focusing and aperture rings but the glass is unmarked. Test film is loaded and if this rain manages to stop I shall try it out this afternoon. If rain continues it will have to wait until the weekend as my boss wants me to work the rest of the week (I usually do two days).

[vintageslrs]

I have one of those and I like it very much.
Mine came with a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 lens which I was quite
surprised with its performance. I really am impressed with that lens.

Enjoy your MTL 5B !

[Peltigera]

I have been looking at my Praktica TL3 to compare it to this MTL5B and I have noticed that the name is on a stick-on label. It is clear that underneath is a different name embossed in the metal(/plastic). I cannot read much of it but the tops of three letters are clearly rounded and the last letter/number has a rounded right edge. Does anyone know what the TL3 was called when not sold as a TL3?

[Stephen]

Dixons had some MTL 5B marked up Prinzflex, or Princeflex, at one point, Porst in Germany re-labled them, as well as Revue ML by Foto-Quelle, also from Germany.
The TL3 was sold as Revueflex, and again by Stanley Kahm's Dixons group as Prinzflex or Prinz. He had control of the Miranda trademark name as well, and seems to have used that on one late batch as well.

Stephen

[Stephen]

www.dresdner-kameras.de/praktica/praktica-export/praktica-export_english/praktica-export_english.html

This reference has a whole page of Pentacon export variants, but does not mention Dixons, very mysterious, although the German writer refers to English suppliers demanding different labels for "unknown Reasons", strange as Dixons was one of the biggest customers of Pentacon, via CZ(ltd) of Borehamwood. Stanley Kalms main reason was to make the type appear exclusive to Dixons, and to make other retailers life difficult, as they had to sell the standard CZ versions for more than his simpler specification, with it's re-badging to make it appear better than it was for the price.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Aug 12, 2013 10:21:40 GMT -5 vintageslrs said:

I have one of those and I like it very much.
Mine came with a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 lens which I was quite
surprised with its performance. I really am impressed with that lens.

Enjoy your MTL 5B !

They ought to have got it right, either Zeiss or Meyer made them, and had made the types since the 1930's! Japanese glass was generally better due to multi-coating, and better selection of the glass blanks etc., but it was a small difference. You only got better going to top makers like Nikon, Canon and Minolta.

Stephen.

[vintageslrs]

The other name some of the Praktica's were sold as was Porst, in some eras.....

Now on that lens of mine.....the Pentacon 50mm f1.8.....I have plenty of Canons, Nikkors, Rokkors, Takumars, Fujinon, etc.
But there is something about the color rendition of that particular Pentacon when matched with Fuji film that
really appeals to me. I have not studied it in terms of definition at the corners, wide open and such. And I have no desire to do so....but it consistently delivers very appealing (to me) colors when used with Fuji film on outdoor photo. I always am pleased with it.

[hansz]

In NL Praktica's were also sold as Pentor.

The Pentacon 1,8/50 most likely is a Meyer lens. Even then (late DDR time) the VEB Pentacon would offer a Carl Zeiss Jena (or Jena, whatever, so much variants...) as a Zeiss (originating) lens because of brand-name selling opportunities.

And, the best feature of the MTL 5B is its dependence of a 1,5V battery, in stead of the 1,35V Mercury cell.

Hans

[Randy]

I have a pair of the LTL's. One in chrome and one in black. (gotta take more pictures)

[matty]

I do like these late model M42 Prakticas, I've got the MTL50, which is the same basic camera but using LEDs rather than a needle to point out the correct exposure. I find the wedge focusing screen easy to use, even if the viewfinder is a little dark.
As to Pentacon lenses, am I right in thinking that Meyer Optik was absorbed into the Pentacon Group in the late 60's, their lenses continuing in production but under the Pentacon name? I picked up a Meyer Orestegon 2.8/29 a couple of weeks ago along with a Praktica Super TL3, haven't had chance to use it yet but it will be interesting to compare with my Pentacon 38 and 50mm lens.
I would like to get a Carl Zeiss 50mm to compare with but all the ones I've come across have stuck aperture blades. I've already broken one trying to effect a repair so I'm holding off buying one till I find one with a working aperture rather than comdemning others to the bin through my botched repair attempts.
Matty

[vintageslrs]

RE: Pentacon 50mm F1.8 Multi Coated lens

This is from Mike's Praktica Collection site www.praktica-collector.de/


Producer VEB Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz Kadlubek-Lens Number KWD 0890
Production Period 1971 to 1990
Aperture range 1.8 - 16
in half stop intervals Diaphragm Type automatic diaphragm operation
Construction 6 elements Aperture Angle 47°
Filter Size screw in: 49mm
push on: none Focusing Range 0.33m to infinity
Coating multi coating colour transmission

Lens Number (Collection) 5161012 Price 43 $
other:

[vintageslrs]

My MTL 5B


MTL5B by bob40caliber, on Flickr

[Peltigera]

I have taken the name sticker off my TL3 and underneath it says "Super TL 1000".

www.praktica-collector.de has the TL3 as "as a part of Praktica super TL 1000 series (1st variation)" so I am assuming that my TL3 is an early one using up Super TL 1000 top plates.

[vintageslrs]

Aug 13, 2013 10:22:20 GMT -5 Peltigera said:

I have taken the name sticker off my TL3 and underneath it says "Super TL 1000".

www.praktica-collector.de has the TL3 as "as a part of Praktica super TL 1000 series (1st variation)" so I am assuming that my TL3 is an early one using up Super TL 1000 top plates.

And other parts too, I'm sure.

[Stephen]

There's not much variation in internal parts in the various Praktica models with the steel vertical shutter, the variations were modified parts like the mirror damper, Meters/Leds, delayed action or not, and range of speeds. The shutter barely changed at all. Half frame versions were made in East Germany by changing a casting and swapping round the drive gear ratio, also made in the UK as well with screwed in parts. These specials went to Police, Government, and laboratory uses. In the UK they also made a 24x24 variant to match the Berning Robot format.

The top mouldings were regularly altered with new numbers, and the stickers,( made by 3m in satin chrome finish), used to use up parts or make them for a specific supplier.

The biggest change was the RTL, which was the forced marriage of the LTL body, and steel shutter, with an Ihagee Exakta removable Pentaprism, Pentacon loosing the plot totally, as it was not compatible with older Exakta models. In working order the Exakta works fine, it is the prism meter that is troublesome, plus dust and dirt getting into the camera a bit to easily.

From personal experience, I reckon most users found the RTL far less reliable than the LTL, and often for strange reasons that should not have affected a basically reliable design.

I suspect that the Exakta RTL was assembled on a different low capacity line at Dresden, and that quality control slipped way lower than the rest of the Pentacon production factory. It was commented on after the Pentacon collapse that recovered records showed that Pentacon had used the Exakta production line to train staff on camera assembly, no wonder they had problems.

Stephen.