Praktica MTL 5: Is This a Poor Man's Pentax Spotmatic? - Camera Talk
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2024
- The Praktica MTL 5 was among the final group of cameras to use the 42mm screw mount. While it lacks the modern features of rival cameras from the 1980s, its simplicity allows it to appeal to those wanting a reliable no-frills camera. That still holds true today.
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If I didn't have a lot of money, which was the case when I was young, I definitely would consider a Praktica MTL 5. By the way, you can sometimes find good deals on eBay with Prakticas, because it's common for people to misspell it as "Practika." I've bought a lot of cameras for low prices because of misspelled brand names.
OMFG....I love Tyrus. He made teh "strength through joy" connection....straight up!
A nice review here, you're giving a very good overview of the camera. 13:09
The MTL5 does have light seals along the entire back, however they are mostly made of a wool-like material which seems to stay in good shape and replacing them therefore usually isn't necessary indeed. But there is one small piece of foam material on the back door at the takeup spool side, which does go bad and might need replacement. An easy job, nonetheless something to be aware of.
When i was a teenager, my older brother had a Pentax Spotmatic, my uncle a Pentax K-1000 and one of my mates got a Pentax ME Super forhis 18th birthday. At that tie, many keen amateurs used Pentax and thats what i wanted too but Pentax was not within my parents budget and i was a student but for my 18th birthday my parents got me a Praktica MTL3 - it had the same Pentacon 50mm f1.8 as the in in tnis video. It's sharp and the camera is still working today. It really go me a good groundung into photography and i later backoacked the world with it. And Pentax? Well the these days my favourite film camera thag i use is a Pentax MX from that same era and has an incredible viewfinder, the like of which ive never seen in anither camera.
I have the updated model of this camera, the Praktica MTL 5 B. For the lightmeter it uses a single LR 44 button cell. You forgot to mention the one feature, that defies the Praktica cameras from other Eastern Bloc made cameras - the PL (Pentacon Loading) easy load system, which makes film loading quite easier.
Great video. My late father was given an MTL 5B as a gift in the late 80s, then when I got into photography he gifted it to me a few years later.
The camera has stayed with me for 30 years. At one point it jammed, then I left it in a draw for 17 years and somehow it had unjammed itself 😅
Now on around my 15th film since getting it out again. I love the very definite shutter sound and the familiarity means I don't ever touch a film camera that isn't a praktica. I also have the MTL 50,which differed only in that the light meter uses LEDs of varying glow, rather than a needle.
The Prakticas are often overlooked today by beginning film photographers. Too bad, because they are great starter cameras.
Pentax is actually a copy a refined copy but a copy.....pentax was advancing the german screw mount cameras on the contax s/ pentacon D series of M42 screw mount cameras (1949), the original Asahiflex (1952) is an almost exact copy of the earlier Praktiflex (1939) with the direct vision finder like the Praktina (first camera to have a motordrive 1952) the west german Edixa Reflex (1954) that adopted east german zeiss m42 screw mount a more conventional modern style winder, Zeiss later having to rename as pentacon brought kw, zeiss, meyer, exakta... etc under one roof. Asahi esentially brought the German 35mm Slrs best attributes together in an extremley well enginered little camera the Pentax...
but on quality the Praktica mtl5 esentially sold as their cheap budget option (more plastic parts) along side the newer B mount series camera's, it destroys say a canon t50 released in the same year....no robust alloy body on the Canon, all cheap plastics, no pc coaxil socket, no conventional cable release, unlike the praktica.
the prakticas metal shutter is far superior to the cloth shutter of the older pentaxes and pentaxes shutters were becoming less reliable (me super has an issue where you can continually wind the winder without it catching the mechanism, later on the mz series had the dreadedful potentially company destoying cheap nylon gears)
its unmistakable the refinded enginnering of the pentax spotmatics...but by 1983 pentax were not making cameras as durable as the their old spotmatics either and defenitly not at the price point Praktica was.
prakticas have proven reliable, especially their shutters to be extremly durable little machines, far more than many other camrea's ive owned like the pentax Me super, Various MZ series camera's, rollieflexes voigtlanders etc.., failure in most prakticas seam to be electrical..which wasnt unusual for any german manufacture at the time east or west, my rollei and voigtlander 35mm camera's and the electronics on those things are less reliable than the Russian cameras i have, the durablity of the take up on spool is horrendous as well on the rollei sl35m, but my Praktica vlc3 and mtl3 goes on, my spec exact to pentax es...praktica ee2 died a long time ago, but german camera electronics at the time were garbadge, thats why Zeiss went to yashica and Leica to Minolta
It's nice to see the old CZJ lenses come out of hibernation.
I've shot with the zebra Tessar. It's a really sharp lens, as you would expect.
I have an MTL3 that works fine with 1.5v batteries, and I'd presume that applies to the MTL5 as well. (The subsequent MTL5b model takes SR44 batteries, I believe.)
My recollection of Praktica cameras is the shutter sounded like a bear trap. The older FX models were quite attractive and innovative, later Prakticas were rather bland and had a reputation for unreliability, often due to their use in student applications where care and maintenance was minimal. A 3-element Domiplan lens came with cheaper variants, and was thought to be a poor performer. Now it's much sought after for the same quirky optical characteristics.
Don't confuse these cameras with the Russian made ones, the East German engineers were very innovative. In 1969 they produced an "electric" system to enable M42 mount cameras to meter wide open. See the LLC and the electric lenses. Unfortunately it didn't catch on due to limited number of lenses available .
Praktica was using the M42 mount before Pentax, M42 is a European standard. Incidentally Pentax was an East German name used on cine projectors in the 50's. It's a bit vague exactly how Asahi Optical Company got hold of the name in 1957 but that's where it came from.
Your MTL 5 should be OK with a PX625 alkaline battery. Some Praktica's used a bridge metering system so the voltage of the battery doesn't matter.
Finally you didn't mention the quick film load system. Take up spool has two springs on it. Ensure these are flat (in line with the film plane). Thread the film behind the bottom tab on the sprockets and line it up with the mark on the bottom of the take up chamber. Wind the lever and the film gets loaded.
I got the feeling that East German engineers were committed to excellence and did their best within the limits of a planned economy and the materials provided to them, as well as other pressures applied by a Communist regime.
No No No, East German Zeiss was awarded the name Carl Zeiss Jena, this was a typical west influenced international court decision because Jena was the original home of Carl Zeiss. Carl Zeiss Oberkochen was created by Zeiss personal who had fled Jena before the Russians arrived and was the upstart. Pentacon was a separate business although they did buy some lenses from Carl Zeiss Jena. Praktica sold millions of cameras around the world including the west. They may have not been big sellers in the USA but they certainly sold well in Europe and in the UK in particular. Up until the significant increases in the standards of living that occurred over the mid 1970's Praktica was probably the biggest selling SLR in the UK by far. To put it in perspective the Pentacon sold around 4 million Praktica L series cameras, that is a lot. If you compare that with all the Rollei 35mm SLR's, Rollei made only 340 thousand including the Voigtlander models and the SL2000F and 3000 series including specialist versions. That is one tenth the number of Prakticas. So the L series Praktica was very successful. Further the L series had a full aperture metering model using electronic transfer of aperture data from 1969 decades before any Japanese camera had electronic data transfer between body and lens. Pentax did not have a camera with full aperture metering until 1973, three years after Praktica. Praktica made the MTL series on well past when it was decidedly old fashioned because it was still their biggest selling camera by quite a margin. The L series Praktica cameras are highly reliable. As for choice of lenses, you can get wonderful lenses from Pentacon, Zeiss Jena and many other suppliers. Carl Zeiss Jena were making lenses under their Carl Zeiss Jena brand until the unification of Germany. I agree with you they are excellent cameras for anyone looking to start film photography. They are excellent cameras full stop.
What no tripod socket ??? 🦘
I forgot to mention it, but it's right above the battery chamber cover on the black part of the lens mount.
4:40
@@roybixby6135 It’s on the lens mount. Looks like it’s at the nodal point of the lens, which is quite innovative.