Well, I received my P6 last week, and already put a roll throght it. Here are my first impressions on it:
The overall feel is good. The prism it came with (as a bonus, see further down) is very dim, but useable outside. It is the latest type of prism pentacon made, with condenser lenses. supposed to be bright, would hate to see a dim one... I measured the view area of the prism to be 45mm x 45mm. About 65% of the neg, right? Pretty absurd cropping, but one might be able to get used to it.
Without the prism, the focus screen measured to be 51mmx51mm, maybe 1mm less due to the screen holder. It comes to about 80% of the image area, much more useable. Without the prism, my focus screen is plenty bright. I will have to rig a waist level finder for it, though.
The much dreaded film spacing problem is present, but with too much spacing. I get 10 shots per 120 roll.
The single coated 80mm lens it came with seems sharp, from looking at the negs. I'll still have to print them, though (it might be a few weeks).
Moral of the story: for $150.00 shipped, it beats my now defunct Lipca Flexora hands down. THe film spacing does not bother me, since the flexora had it too. The lens is sharper, the viewfinder brighter (or just as bright when the prism is on), and I have more shutter speeds to use.
BUT, if I had the money, I would go for an ARAX 60 or a similar upgraded K 60, if I had the guarantees of a problem free camera.
I took a risk buying a used camera from overseas. Of all the things that could have gone wrong, this is the lesser evil.
Oh, yeah: the negs look very well exposed, and I used 1/125 to 1/500 of a second (bright sunlight on most of the shots, tri-x to boot). So the shutter does not worry me.
Just something to keep in the back of your head, Harris.