Film Fridays: The Space Age-looking East German autofocus SLR that nearly was

TL,

The first SLR I used has a ground glass focusing screen and no meter built in. It is a Minolta.

Mar 24, 2021permalink

bilmenot

Wow what a beast !!! I worked in a West German office equipment company long time ago, about the same time I got my Praktica SLR, I would say, German mechanics are massive and heavy duty but the electronics, well, worked but not comparable to Japanese made. If you break open a Metz hand flash you will see how it compares to a Japanese one, say Panasonic, but in actual test the GN is higher than stated. In short, German made ones are massive but messy inside, the failure rate was high back then.

Mar 17, 2021*permalink

BillMassNBPT ILC

I sooo wanted an SLR when I was in high school in the late '60s. With my limited budget, I bought a Hanimex Practice Super TL. Young and naive, I thought it was so high tech compared to non SLR's. The more I used it the more I realized what a gigantic piece of s--- this camera was. It is long gone .......

Mar 15, 2021permalink

BillMassNBPT ILC

Hanimex "Praktica" Super TL. (My error)

Mar 15, 2021permalink

jxh

Back in the early 70s my young wife had a Hanimex Practica

Mar 15, 2021permalink

Hans van de Riet

I still owe a Hanimex 600mm tele lens. It consists of 2 parts that fit together (front and end parts) screwed together with a solid ring. It even has a visor on top of the front part of the lens so you can put it in the more or less correct direction of where to start to focus. The focussing ring has actually a short straight piece of bar screwed in to grab it for I assume faster focusing. It also has a massive lens shade. As far as I could figure out it has two lenses, one at the rear and one at the front. Resolution and sharpness and aberration qualities I better not qualify. It's now a powerful weapon being pretty hefty and 600 mm long. A killer lens!!!

Mar 19, 2021permalink

achim k

Was the Praktika sold as "Hanimex" in the USA? Only a name, I suppose import/export. I had a "Hanimex" 2,8/35mm lens for my first Pentax Spotmatic, and it was Japanese made and the best thing was the low price. Germany in 1970

Mar 19, 2021*permalink

jxh

the Praktica and Spotmatic used the same lens mount.

Mar 19, 2021permalink

aegarcia

My first SLR in 1958 was a Praktina made in Dresden with a 58mm f2 Carl Zeiss Biotar. Built like a tank. No need to carry a baseball bat I would have knock out anyone with it who would have dared to bully me. It had a removable viewfinder to enable me to take waist level photos. I still have Kodakchrome slides today of comparable quality as any photos I have taken today. If it had a DSLR today I would not hesitate to get it.

Mar 15, 2021*permalink

Zero4497

Dam that thing be ugly. Looks like an old faux leather shaving kit from the 70’s

Mar 15, 2021permalink

Semper DSLR

Sei vorsichtig, was du über Darth Apparat sagst.

Mar 15, 2021permalink

havanna60

No need to dig out nonexistent phantom cameras, in that era 1991 Minolta 7xi was and still is a popular camere with unorthodox interface, spaceship like body design, cards and powerzoom and motorized manual focus xi lenses.

Mar 14, 2021*permalink

Zoifio

I have the 9xi. Great camera!

Mar 15, 2021permalink

The Silver Nemesis

This is wow - very, very informative and interesting, thanks! NEVER heard any gossips about it back then.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

2cvpickupboy

I had one nearly the same, the. Very futuristic Konica Ayborg I think it was called and a Samsung designed by Porsche. Both 35mm superzoom’s and I still have them in the loft keeping them purely because of their futuristic design and innovation

Mar 13, 2021permalink

AbrasiveReducer

A shame Kickstarter wasn't around. With that textured finish and the red dot, there's a lot to like here. And remember, Olympus & Leitz declined not to (or couldn't afford to) swtich to auto focusing film cameras, so there was some forward thinking going on in Dresden.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

XVOYAGERX

German technology was/seemed almost ahead of everywhere else, even today, their computer software is practically second to none, i have about 5-6 German programs (in English obviously) on my d/top and l/top computers at the moment, all superb programs i will never be without for photo/video Editing!!

Mar 14, 2021permalink

revio

@AbrasiveReducer:

Olympus did launch autofocusing SLR:s, (or was it only one perhaps?) with a few AF-lenses in the system.
But they did not manage to compete. Thus, was shelved after a few years.

Mar 14, 2021*permalink

Threaded

@revio - are you sure you’re not thinking of their “power focus” range? They did bring out a new all electronic system, but it still relied on the user to choose focus and wasn’t autofocus in the truest sense.

Mar 18, 2021permalink

sh10453

.
A cold-war-era stealth bomber, Soviet-style!!!

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Jeff Peterman

I had a Praktica camera around 1977 - my first real camera and I loved it. It was the first cheap SLR (meaning the first I could afford) with through the lens metering. I took lots of shots with that, and a Vivitar flash unit, until I had a job that let me buy my dream camera - an Oly OM-2. My OM-2 also lacked autofocus, but it wasn't something I missed (Olympus never did get good, reliable autofocus on their removable lens film SLRs).

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Parry Johnson

My first 35mm camera when I was 14 was a Praktica LTL3, and I loved it! A few years later, it became my infrared camera of choice because of its easy film loading -- a brilliant reverse spring catch that trapped the leader.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Curtis80

A beautiful camera. Such a shame that a lot of DDR factories were closed down. It seems logic because this factories lost their financially support of the DDR government. Some companies were lucky to go on with BRD companies but the most didn't.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Lessiter

Not usually a fan of futurist design but this is great. Looks made of roofing asphalt. Both the shape and texture. Way better than any canon t90s etc, different league.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Carl Zeiss of GDR Jena and FRG Oberkochen had better luck. After 1990 re-unification the company was reorganised. Most of Jena was closed down with huge job losses but the East German spy satellite division survived as world leader. Zeiss and Leica names used by Sony and Panasonic cameras; pulling power? Made in Germany adds value.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Astro Landscapes

Looking at that camera, I can't help but hear Nicole Byer saying, "NAILED IT!"

Mar 13, 2021*permalink

du four

In the 1980s, Praktika cameras and lenses were sold by a low to medium cost retail chain in West Germany, called "Quelle". They went bankrupt in the early 2000s. Praktica was certainly the best camera gear available in East Germany and neighbouring communist countries. However, due its simple technology and relatively low quality Praktica never became popular in West Germany or western Europe - unless you favoured low cost over everything else.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, former East Germany (GDR) became notoriously short of foreign currency, especially the western Deutsche Mark (DM) currency. In fact, the GDR was close to state bankruptcy for most of the 1980s. Exporting inexpensive products like Praktica to the west was a means to get the desperately needed western Deutsche Mark. However, it also meant that supply of Praktica cameras in East Germany was limited and cost was high by local standards.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

GDR was the only profitable part of the COMECON eastern bloc 1947-1991. Not much stands the test of time; not just Praktika?

RIP Yashica CONTAX Minolta Konica Bronica Mamiya plus Rolleiflex and Minox.

Mar 14, 2021permalink

du four

The GDR was far from being profitable and indeed close to state bankruptcy since the late 1970s until its demise in 1990. See the interviews with Gerhard Schürer, the head of the State Economic Planning Commission of the GDR throughout the 1980s, on youtube.com. Search: "Gerhard Schürer, Staatsverschuldung der DDR." You may also want to check information on the so-called "KoKo", led by Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski.

Mar 14, 2021permalink

Fine....so GDR not profitable but the country maintained a mixed economy not much worse than socialist Britain in 1970's. Britain went bust In 1974 with IMF loan to save the day. Comparatively speaking East Germans were better off than other Eastern European countries like Poland. After Poland entered EU in 2004 there was a massive influx of Polish people out of the country with one million Polish people entering Britain for work. That put Britain in a difficult situation with underfunded State services like NHS. East Germany took 10 years to match West German standard of living. Quite an accomplishment for a united Germany.

Mar 15, 2021*permalink

Photoman

1. Hard not to laugh
2. AF would have failed
3. Whoever would have imported this model, would have a list
of things they would need to fix, before they could sell it.
4. It would spy on Western countries 😉

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Lajos Hajdu

Congrats for the conceited, opinonated prejudices.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Photoman

I knew a repairer of Praktica back in the day and all the late model cameras had faults. It was a crap product made by crappy workers who didn’t care, plus they were communists.

Mar 14, 2021permalink

1945 Lord Rootes British car magnate laughed at VW Beetle for its unusual design when asked to buy it. Today VW own Bentley. BMW own Rolls-Royce Cars.
No British-owned car industry. Even TRIUMPH name owned by BMW. British Leyland in the industrial graveyard. MG Cars owned by China
Biggest car market: Peoples Republic of China known as communist China? Note: GM sell more cars in China than USA. Fancy that?

Mar 14, 2021*permalink

ohnodslr

@photoman: thanks for the crappy post.
Who were communists? The workers?

Mar 14, 2021permalink

Photoman

@OHNODLS Before the Cold War ended, East Germans were communists and as
an example, one years they made 11,000 Praktica cameras and they only sold 2,000 cameras in that year. Next year the Communist leader said to the workers you will make 12,000 cameras!
Near the end of the Cold War, their quality control was not very good. You need to research the history of Praktica cameras.

Mar 15, 2021permalink

ohnodslr

I guess you live in USA.
So last 4 years all us-americans were trumpists?
1871 to 1918 all east-germans were following the Kaiser?
1918 to 1933 all east-germans were democratic?
1933 to 1945 all east-germans were Nazis?
1945 to 1989 all east-germans were communists?

Who was this "Communist leader" you are referring to?

Mar 15, 2021permalink

ohnodslr

@Photoman: Ok I see you live in Australia.

Mar 15, 2021permalink

shnsea

A BCX model in the early 80's was my first real useable camera: manual controls and a very useable electronic metering system. It was high school and I really enjoyed using it. Then about 5 years later, while living in the US, the plastic of the kit lens completely disintegrated and fell apart much like the Berlin wall. In all the years of using electronics, I have never ever had the plastic on my fancy built equipment disintegrate like that. Soviet manufacturing, what else can you say.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Sourov

The comments in DPreview teach me a lot more than the actual articles. All the time.
It is amazing how many experts we have. Please accept my appreciation. 🙏📸

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Tom_A

Regarding design of this mock up, I thought Luigi Colani more than anything else. He introduced the Canon T90 which was back then truly a statement in design.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

SammyToronto

Was it designed by a toddler using silly putty?

Mar 12, 2021permalink

epambos

😅
Let's ask Blackmagic!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Gesture

An article on the early 35mm film SLR auto focus lenses would be interesting. This was one:
https://www.apertureinfo.com/item/chinon_af_50mm_f_1-7.html

Mar 12, 2021permalink

petebfrance

I remember my Praktica PLC2 with affection and still use the lenses on my Pentax. I moved to Pentax because I thought (knew?) that Praktica was doomed;(

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

apestorm

"It might have then become the only German autofocus SLR to come into production"

Should read "become the first german autofocus slr to come into production"

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

Welsh

I think that this looks, er, cool.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Ken60

It is a bit bulging , but when I first looked at the image I thought it looked closer to an EOS1 than any old DSLR design before losing the film winder.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Yxa

Canon DSLRs has always looked like a Nikon DSLR that has been put into an oven and melted

Mar 22, 2021*permalink

Semper DSLR

What those German chemists could do with a lump of coal!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

m_black

Looks like the inspiration for the BlackMagic pocket cam

Mar 12, 2021permalink

realmadeira

...or some East German engineer von Braun has defected to BlackMagic

Mar 12, 2021permalink

embie

What an ugly looking monster...is this a hoax ?

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Arek Halusko

"Engineering models" but guess you missed that.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

embie

No, didn't miss that, so, it's an ugly engineering model
;)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

stevo23

A Trabbi with a lens...

Mar 12, 2021permalink

stevo23:

Except Praktica cameras had a perfectly good reputation, unlike those cars.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

davesurrey

Which reminds me of the old 16 valve Trabant joke...8 in the engine and the other 8 in the radio.
(Valve is what US would call tubes.)

Mar 13, 2021permalink

davesurry:

Weren't Trabants 2 cycle?

2 cycle engines don't necessarily have valves, just open ports in the side of the cylinders that allow the mixed fuel and oil to be sucked in at some point on the down stroke.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

davesurrey

OMG HowaboutRaw.
That was a JOKE!
HowAboutaSOH?

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Kharan

The Trabant engine is a two-stroke, two-cylinder design that has no "valves" in the typical sense of the word, but the joke is still funny for non-pedants.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Kharan:

Okay, so the "old joke" about Trabants, repeated by davesurrey, doesn't make sense. And I'd bet even the East Germans switched car radios to transistors in the 1970s. Where there radios in Trabants?

(Yes, I know that transistors are still valves of a sort.)

Mar 13, 2021permalink

davesurrey

Thank you Kharan.
Sometimes I do wonder about some people. ;-)

Mar 13, 2021permalink

stevo23

@howaboutraw - think outside the box for more joy in life

Mar 14, 2021permalink

http://www.cjs-classic-cameras.co.uk/zeiss/werra.html#werramatic

stevo23:

Seems that I had to confine my thinking to 1950s car radio to appreciate the joke.

Mar 15, 2021permalink

Kharan

HowaboutRAW: It was possible to order a Trabant with a radio after 1963, but few ever left the factory like that, and I don’t dare to guess what aftermarket options existed, if at all, to address that need. People probably just took portable radios with them on long trips.

The first all-transistor radio released in the DDR was the Sternchen in 1959. Much earlier than your (and mine) guess. So no, the joke is completely baseless... but it’s still fun.

Mar 15, 2021permalink

stevo23

@kharan - but oh the Wartburg...

Mar 15, 2021permalink

Yxa

HowaboutRaw
I actually liked you comment about 2-strokes lacking valves
Fancy that

Mar 22, 2021*permalink

basriet

interesting story. thank you for sharing!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Michel Cojan

The superb Werra (Carl Zeiss Jena - DDR) cameras from the '50s & '60s :

Beautiful and usable even now days.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Kharan

I own two. I love them; they're the most beautiful cameras ever made, in my opinion.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Michel Cojan

Totally agree ! I've been using one for years too.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

noirdesir

Ok, if today had been 1st of April, I would have had my doubts about this.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Jazz1

Wow! I like the looks of that camera! Says, the guy with an Pro-3 ;)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Francis85

You must be kiddin'
To me it looks like a birthday cake.
Made by somebody with good intentions to make you a camera cake.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

(unknown member)

It does look like a fancy birthday cake

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Jazz1

Well it is my birthday in a month ;)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

AlephNull

And what's wrong with making a camera out of cake? I've seen cameras made from metal, plastic, wood, surely pushing the boundaries and making one from cake can be done by some inventive soul. Let's discard conventional thinking, and embrace new ideas!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Hubertus Bigend

It is no camera, it is an engineering model, as the article says. An engineering model doesn't need to resemble the final design even slightly.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Francis85

Hubertus - Most engineering models actually look pretty much as the final product as it is used for testing if needed components fit, and they look for design flaws and overheating issues.

The engineering model pretty much resembles the final product with mostly only minor changes to its design, unless issues have been found with that initial design.

Mar 13, 2021*permalink

(unknown member)

I find myself looking for these posts/links on Friday now. Good content. Please keep it up. So many cameras I wasn't familiar with at the time. Even so I probably wouldn't have been that interested since, at the time, I had the view that cameras were simply utilitarian tools.

Pre-internet you just didn't know what you didn't know; unless somebody you knew, knew it and pointed you toward it.

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

Kosmo Foto

Many thanks - I really enjoy publishing stuff like this on Kosmo Foto. Even after 20 years of collecting and using film cameras, there's still so many discoveries to be made.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Carl Schofield

My first serious camera was a Practiflex purchased when I was 15 years old in 1952.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

NickyB66

Still, this Praktica has better ergonomics than a Sony Mirrorless.

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

Michael Piziak

If you want a Sony with good ergonomics, just buy a Nikon.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

LHMF

Every - no nearly - every Mirrorless has a better ergonomic than Sony :)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Welsh

@NickyB66: What doesn’t?

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Film_enthusiast

Actually, α7R IV and Nikon Z7 are about the same size.
https://i0.wp.com/digitalrev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/a-1164.jpg?fit=1920%2C1351&ssl=1
Interesting how Fuji users bash Sony, when half of their cameras don't even have a grip. 😁

Mar 12, 2021permalink

mick232

Define "ergonomics" precisely and explain in detail why every mirrorless has better ergonomics than Sony.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Yxa

Even other manufacturers trolls are better than Sony ones you know, Mick232

Mar 22, 2021permalink

M Lammerse

I still have a couple of Praktica's...got it for washing some ones car when I was 9 or 10 :-)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Glass half full

In 1960 I foolishly bought a new Pentacon F with the f3.5 Primotar lens. This lens was so bad that when I could finally afford to buy a Takumar lens and took comparitive photos of an iron railing, you could see the difference just looking at the negatives by eye. It had a real leather and plastic case that drew attention for all the wrong reasons. Apart from the lens, it worked, but the shutter started jammimg within about 10 years - something on the rubberised fabric was exuding and glueing it up. I didn't bother trying to get it fixed.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Rolf Brenner

The Primotar is a highly sought after lens because of its unique bokeh it reaches very high prices on Ebay nowadays you should have keep it!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

goblin

Practika might have been ubiquitous among Soviet photography enthusiasts and budget-conscious western hobbyists, but it was leaps and bounds ahead of most Soviet cameras available in Eastern Block markets, not to mention it was about three times the price and 10 times more difficult to find.

My BX20 was perfect with its matching 28, 50 and 135mm Pentacons, exposed perfectly every time, and was fully TTL compatible with all Olympus flash accessories (which, in the eighties, were a whole ecosystem).

Practika was to Soviet cameras what MZ and Simson were to Soviet motorcycles and mopeds - not terrific by Western standards, but leaps and bounds ahead of their Soviet counterparts, with the whole local cult following to match it (as for these bikes once you had the money saved, you actually had to find one to buy, as opposed to the Soviet ones sitting on the shelf costing 40% less waiting for some poor enthusiast to bite the bait of eternal pushing).

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

Reza Masoudi

BC1 (Bx20's older brother) was also a wonderful camera.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Photog74

The elaborate focusing aids on the Praktica BC1 electronic made manual focusing a breeze.

Triple-wedge split-image centre plus a microprism collar!

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

Welsh

@goblin: Agreed. MZ bikes were actually quite good machines (I knew people who toured on the 250) but CZ (Eastern German) were a bad joke. I once had a CZ 175. Despite agricultural simplicity, it was the most unreliable motor vehicle I have ever owned.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

OBI656

Practika got NOTHING TO DO W SOVIETS!
It was a product of Eastern Germany. It was an excellent camera with Carl Zeiss optics. In 70's, Many of my friends got that camera since it was less expensive than Pentax, Nikon, Minolta etc.

I have NO wild idea where you got your information.

Mar 12, 2021*permalink

FuhTeng

that's cool you used something in this family!

Mar 12, 2021permalink

goblin

@Welsh, CZ was Czechoslovakian, not Soviet, and most of them were actually very decent (not the 175cc unfortunately), if a bit rustic.

Believe it or not, your CZ was leaps and bounds ahead of the Kovrovets/Voskhod (Cossack in the UK) 175 that competed with it :)

Mar 12, 2021permalink

FrancoD

who said that they had something to do with Soviets ?

Mar 12, 2021permalink

OBI656

RE: "FuhTeng that's cool you used something in this family!"

???? ... what are U talking about... ???

Mar 14, 2021permalink

(unknown member)

A little satirical bit of my brain insists that Leica stole the R8/R9 design language from this.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

That was my first association... Although it was a first try by an intern.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Michael H:

Have you looked at a Leica R8?

Mar 12, 2021permalink

LHMF

Stole Design? Hmm, there exist pictures that VW has solen a design for his golf by the Trabbi maker - so Wetzlar is not so far away from the former DDR.

Ans yes, it was also my first thought that it is was a deign studie for the R8

Mar 12, 2021permalink

(unknown member)

@HowaboutRaw: Yes.

@LHMF: oh I don't think they really did it. It was satire.

Sometimes though I see things and think: wow, the person who designed some famous thing saw that. The other camera I think of when I see the R8 is the Exa 1A, and in that case I really think there's something to it. The Exa 1A is a little design classic.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

M Houghton: Yes, the Exa! Jerked out of a pizza oven.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

LHMF

@Michael Houghton: I know that it was satire, I forgot the smiley in my answer after Wetzlar . But the story with VW is tue, there was a documentation in german TV (ARD or ZDF).

Beside (double smile) I had a R 8 and it was three times in Wetzlar/Solms in the first half year with electronic problems - so I begin to think. They copy the design but forgot to copy the electronic :) :)

Mar 13, 2021permalink

Roland Karlsson

I have an exa 1b. It is a fantastic camera. It it is beautiful. It seems indestructible. It has a very weird shutter mechanism, involving the mirror.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

(unknown member)

@LHMF: :-)

@Roland: yes -- I had a 1A for a while. That shutter mechanism is an extraordinarily brilliant solution to the problem of lowering manufacturing costs to make a budget model in the early days of SLRs; combining the mirror and the first curtain is only going to work when all exposures are slow-ish, but it does work and it's pretty robust.

Ahh I should get another.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

That is seriously ugly...

My father had a Praktica LTL. Felt only slightly less agricultural than my Zenit-E. Eternal thanks for progression leading into cameras like the FM and particularly the FM2n.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Mr Bolton

Sturdy farm cameras.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

NAwlins Contrarian

"But as the 1980's rolled around", a practical auto-focus SLR was still five years away. The Minolta Maxxum 7000 / Alpha 7000 was the first, introduced in 1985. The first Canon EF-mount cameras came in 1987. So it's not like 1989 was very late to bring out an AF SLR.

Now whether an East German company, or any German company, could have sold an AF SLR with performance, features, and price to compete with the mass-market Minolta, Canon, Nikon, and Pentax AF SLRs is another question.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

wjdaniel

I also caught the historical error about when autofocus SLRs were available. Somebody didn't do enough research.

Mar 12, 2021permalink

Greg OH

Both Canon and Nikon had primitive AF cameras prior to their mainstream ones. Nikon F3AF in 1983. Canon T80 in 1985.

Mar 13, 2021permalink

RolliPoli

Don't write Pentax out of the narrative.
The ME-F auto focus body and lens was the first mass market AF 35mm SLR in 1981
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentax_ME_F

Mar 14, 2021permalink

midlingphotographer

The poor thing looks quite bloated

Mar 12, 2021permalink