There’s one thing about Prakticas – they made a lot of them and they seem to last. Actually, that’s two things, and I’m not going to start a Spanish Inquisition routine. That aside, they do seem to be the VW Beetle of cameras.
I came across this one as a camera body in a box of ‘£5 per item’ bits at a camera fair. The shutter speeds seemed to run in progression and it focused with a borrowed lens, so why not? The light seal material at one end of the film door was perished, but it was a quick job to replace. The cover of the battery chamber was seized, usually a sign that the battery has leaked. Take the bottom plate off the camera and the battery holder lifts out. Fit a new battery, refit the bottom plate and … no meter. Oh well, I’ll have another go at cleaning the battery contacts and if that doesn’t work, I have a light meter.
This model is the Super TL 1000 which dates it to 1979-86. It’s the fourth generation of these cameras, with through-lens metering (or not) and a vertically-run metal shutter. It has their weird take-up spool arrangement which I have struggled with, but I’ll have another go with it. I’ve not got on well with it before, but they made enough of these cameras that the fault is probably me not having the knack.
So I had a tweak of the battery contacts and the meter needle now moves. Unfortunately it completely over-reads, so something in the electronics was possibly damaged by the leaking battery. More likely though is that I’m using the wrong voltage battery. This camera may have been set-up to use a 1.35v mercury cell. I’ll try using a zinc-air battery and see if that works better. I also had a go at loading the camera and the take-up spool caught and worked first time. It must have been my awkwardness in the past, so I take back most of what I’ve said about Praktica’s odd bit of wire. And now it’s loaded, I might as well use it.
So yes, it works just like a camera. The focusing screen has a split image and microprism and seems to work well enough. It has a pop-up flag in the viewfinder to show that the shutter has been fired and the camera needs winding. The film advance is a short stroke. Because it came as a body it got taken out to play with a Helios 58mm and a Pentax 35mm lenses. There’s nothing wrong with screw-mount lenses and there’s plenty to choose from. Their only downside is that they are slow to swap. But Prakticas are cheap enough to fit one to each lens.
The results on the film were encouraging. The frames are evenly spaced and the exposure looks OK across the speeds and apertures I was using. Not bad for a camera that’s at least 37 years old and was rattling around in a box of bits.
So what we’ve got is a boxy camera that will take a huge range of cheap lenses and will probably work just fine. If you were thinking to recommend a beginner’s film camera, this could be it. Or maybe not – the beginner would be straight into apertures and shutter speeds with no soft introduction. But perhaps that really is the best way to learn? Load this thing with some Kentmere 100 or 400 and go take some pictures. Learn by doing and enjoy a camera that is cheap and effective.
Fup Duck Photography 