Hanimex Praktica super TL

tjaded · Sep 16, 2009

Hi all--
Someone just gave me one of these...seems to be in really good shape. Anyone ever use one/have any thoughts on it? Just curious...

Matt

Anscojohn · Sep 16, 2009

You do not say what lens is on it. Back in the 1970s, I took great delight in tweaking my friends by showing the pictures made with what I called my "Bolshevik Camera." I added a Zeiss Jena Pancolar lens which was very sharp. I also had an array of East German lenses bought for me by a friend living in Berlin. Despite all their funkiness and tinny sound, they are capable picture takers.

fatboy22 · Sep 16, 2009

That is a version of the Pentacon Six TL. It is the same camera but was marketed in Austraila. I have one of these and it works very well.
Does your Lens say AUSJENA on it or Zeiss Jena. Well worth having it serviced! Just be careful when winding the film. Don't let the lever snap back by itself. It can destroy the wind gears causing film frame over laps. Type in Pentacon Six in your search engine and go to Trevors website, you can't miss it. A major wealth of information about these fine cameras.

Jamie

tjaded · Sep 16, 2009

The lens is a Pentacon 50mm 1.8

fatboy22 · Sep 16, 2009

You know what. My bad, Your camera is a 35mm camera. I was thinking it was a medium format camera but now I remember it would actuall say Hanimex Praktica 66. I'm sure its still a great camera, Pentacon made some great equipment! I got excited seeing the Haminex name.

Anscojohn · Sep 16, 2009

tjaded said:
The lens is a Pentacon 50mm 1.8

*******
That's a late model lens made by what had once been the Meyer Werke, in Goerlitz. It is a good performer. Snobs would say the Zeiss lenses were better; but individual variation is probably more important than which factory they came from.

tjaded · Sep 16, 2009

Yep, it's a 35mm. Nothing great, but a pretty decent camera, especially for free! I'll run some film through it and see how it looks.

alanrockwood · Sep 17, 2009

I remember seeing them in ads in the photo magazines back in the late 1960's, early 1970's. I also recall handling them in the photo stores. They were inexpensive, and had no snob appeal, which is to say their reputation was not very high. However, I thought they were pretty neat. I think the reputation of the Pentacon cameras from that era is probably higher now than it was back then.

By the way, the standard lens on these cameras had a very close focusing distance.

Fred De Van · Sep 17, 2009

These were made by the millions in the 70's and 80's. They were what the Pentax was a direct copy of. Good cameras, great lenses for the most part. Totally competent cameras. I used a Pentax FXII and a 20mm Zeiss Flektagon to shoot the March on Wash. in 1963 for Life Magazine. There simply no was no other reliable SLR available at the time which had that lens.

I own and use today, Praktica MTL 5, and a Praktica digital P&S of current day production. I also have a Pentacon 6 which I love.

Praktica still exists and will service and upgrade certain cameras they made in the 80's an 90's. They are now part of JenOptic which is owned by Schneider. They are Leica's partner on the M9 and built the Sinar Digital Backs, since JenOptic own (s) (ed) Sinar also. (JenOptics involvement in Sinar is in a state of flux as of this week.)

More about your camera can be found here:

http://www.praktica-users.com/cams/l/supertl2.html

and here: http://commiecameras.com/

Mike P · Sep 19, 2009

"These were made by the millions in the 70's and 80's. They were what the Pentax was a direct copy of".

That's quite funny! The camera mentioned was a rather cheap one from the late 60's. Nothing about it was copied by Pentax, either directly or indirectly! As others have pointed out, the East German lenses were quite sharp, though they weren't always very well-made

pentax4ever · Sep 19, 2009

Praltica - competent camera, no Pentax copy

Fred De Van said:
These were made by the millions in the 70's and 80's. They were what the Pentax was a direct copy of. Good cameras, great lenses for the most part. Totally competent cameras.

I had a Hanimex Praktica Super TL until it was stolen, followed by a Spotmatic F and the two cameras were quite different, save for the M42 mount. The Praktica was well designed and took excellent photos, mine had a Meyer Oreston 50mm f1.8 that was quite sharp and focused to 9". It was my first 'real' camera and I loved it.

Anscojohn · Sep 19, 2009

[ I used a Pentax FXII and a 20mm Zeiss Flektagon to shoot the March on Wash. in 1963 for Life Magazine. There simply no was no other reliable SLR available at the time which had that lens.

You mean Praktica FX II, don't you? Or Praktiflex FII?

Anscojohn · Sep 19, 2009

Mike P said:
"These were made by the millions in the 70's and 80's. They were what the Pentax was a direct copy of".

That's quite funny! The camera mentioned was a rather cheap one from the late 60's. Nothing about it was copied by Pentax, either directly or indirectly! As others have pointed out, the East German lenses were quite sharp, though they weren't always very well-made

******
The other way around Asahi: copied the two screw thread lens mounts for the early Asahiflex; later the M42 came to be called Praktica/Pentax screw thread; then just Pentax screw thread. Soon Asahi was using the pentraprism pioneered on the VEB Pentacon's Contax slr made in the "..sogenannte DDR." Changed the name, I believe, from Asahiflex to PENTAx because of the penta prism.

Fred De Van · Sep 19, 2009

Anscojohn said:
You mean Praktica FX II, don't you? Or Praktiflex FII?

Wow, I did not know I even knew how to spell that word. Yes, its was a (KW) Praktica FX or FXII, made in Dresden made by the entity which still remained after the Nazis took Praktica from its American owner, the Russians, in turn took it from the Germans and imprisoned the hapless, stuborn American. One of the few along with Zeiss Jena which survived the political realities, and the crazy quilt ownership was the norm of this closed, cartel like, optical/technical industry before the world nightmare.

Fred De Van · Sep 19, 2009

Mike P said:
"These were made by the millions in the 70's and 80's. They were what the Pentax was a direct copy of".

That's quite funny! The camera mentioned was a rather cheap one from the late 60's. Nothing about it was copied by Pentax, either directly or indirectly! As others have pointed out, the East German lenses were quite sharp, though they weren't always very well-made

They Ashai Pentax was the "cheap" copy! in 1961 or so, a Praktica FX sold for $495, Sears sold the Ashai ..nee: Pentax (Tower Reflex) for $89.00. A Contax D (Pentacon) was $695 and the Pentax was $99.00. They were far from cheap inthe 1960's. Leicas cost less.

The Praktica Super TL II which is the topic is from about the late 70's, and they were cheap then because of Communism and a trade wall erected against the East Germans to rebuild the West German, British and French industry. All the Zeiss management and other industry leaders were spirited off to the American sector, while the physical manufacturing base was shipped to the USSR. The Russians could not take the Praktica factory because it was American owned before the war, so they nationalized it into VEB (state owned enterprise) Pentacon.

Pentax copied both the Praktica and Pentacon, and stepped into the hole created by politics, trade matters and greed, along with the rest of what became the Japan Photo Juggernaut.

Red Robin · Apr 22, 2010

greedings! was reading up on my H.PRAKTICA when I came on your posting. Might you still have the manual? RED ROBIN ( redrobin3195@gmail.com)

FilmLives! · Apr 23, 2010

It was my first camera that I bought for myself. It was made in the Germany formerly known as East. The Meyer f1.8 lens will focus to a close 13 inches, pretty impressive in its day. Good, rugged camera, lightweight, easy to use meter (big ol' button on the front). Built around the slower films of its day (max shutter 1/500, I believe), but all in all a perfectly servicable camera. It started me down the dark road to purchasing more equipment. I paid $92 plus shipping for mine in about 1971-72 from the old, later (justly) vilified Cambridge Camera in New York.

jZ

kzelnick · Oct 6, 2010

This was my first camera!

I got it as a high school graduation present in 1971, so they were available before the "late 70's" date mentioned earlier in this thread. Mine came with a Meyer-Goerlitz 50mm f2.8 lens and all bad pictures were my fault, not the camera's. I still use it on occasion as I'm old-fashioned and prefer film to digital images, but I've been spoiled by the instant gratification of digital. Nothing fancy about the Super TL, the only thing electronic is the light meter, which uses a Wheatstone bridge circuit to eliminate the effects of varying battery voltage. I love this camera!

Allan Swindles · Oct 6, 2010

Praktica cameras were distributed in the UK by C. Z. Scientific Instruments. I recall a 50mm f2.8 Domiplan lens model and a much preferred Pentacon/Oreston f1.8 version, an East German copy of the West German Zeiss Biogon lens. I used a Super TL with the pre-set Biogon lens for a number of years, but then came the Olympus OM-1, I can say no more.

Tom Hicks · Oct 6, 2010

tjaded said:
Hi all--
Someone just gave me one of these...seems to be in really good shape. Anyone ever use one/have any thoughts on it? Just curious...

Matt

Matt I don't have this one but here are a few images from my Praktica L, film was 200 gold, lens was a Yashica 50 1.7, Flash was the Vivatar 285 HV

hope this gives you some idea of what to expect if you do your part.

Camera purchased at garage sale for 8 dollars.

Steve Roberts · Oct 7, 2010

I had a Super TL (the original version with the big button meter switch) for many years. It followed my first SLR (Zenit E) and served me well until I could afford to move up the ladder to a Pentax. Mine had the f2.8 Domiplan lens. Whilst that was not very fast and a bit small and fiddly, I never had any complaints about the quality of the results. The camera eventually demised when I was caving and dropped it into a muddy puddle.
Steve

Ian Grant · Oct 7, 2010

Allan Swindles said:
Praktica cameras were distributed in the UK by C. Z. Scientific Instruments. I recall a 50mm f2.8 Domiplan lens model and a much preferred Pentacon/Oreston f1.8 version, an East German copy of the West German Zeiss Biogon lens. I used a Super TL with the pre-set Biogon lens for a number of years, but then came the Olympus OM-1, I can say no more.

I doubt the Pentacon/Oreston was a copy of the Biogon.

Meyer had a very competitive range of 35mm lens designs pre-WWII and sold f1.5 Plasmats for Leica's and Contax's, as well as lenses for Exacta's. In fact they (or their distributors) sold a 35mm camera fitted with their f1.5 2" (50mm) lens in 1928, the camera body made by Leica.

They also had an f1.9 lens, so they had no need to copy a Zeiss design.

Ian

Removed Account2 · Oct 10, 2010

Biogon? West german?

Wasn't Biogon a Carl Zeiss design to begin with? In other words it had to be copied in west germany after the war?

The camera design elite in germany resided in Dresden, unfortunately for the entire german photo industry big power politics interferred witrh the post WW2 history and rebuilding - locking out the *best part* from the world market.

I have an early SLR found in USA, ebay - they had to remove the Contax D lettering with a dremel, in order to sell it in the US, and hence it sold for peanuts.

I still remember the back-pages small ads in Modern Photography, advertizing German top quality SLR, that sold for 1/4 of the price of anything coming from (west) Germany and half of anything from Japan.

Even if all the west german designs was inferior, the east germans probably lost money on their export....-

Hanimex Praktica super TL

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