Praktica Super TL

[Mike Kennedy]

Another Rescue Mission

This beauty from the GDR was headed for the knackers yard. Jena aperture blades seized,film advance leaver wouldn,t return,the meter was dead and the body had suffered years of neglect.
I fixed the lens and return leaver.All the body needed was a good cleaning (windex & Q-Tips). Got the meter fired up but,man,its way outta wack. My question is this: I have heard of "stoped down metering".Can I use the depth of field button to establish the proper exposure? If not can anyone suggest how to fool the meter? (it seems to be off by about 3-4 stops).

Mike

 

[nyx]

what about setting different iso, so it will compensate?

 

[benjiboy]

As far as I remember Mike, pressing the big black button on the right below the angled shutter release should activate the meter and stop the lens down.

 

[PeterB]

Mike,
If you mean the Super TL 1000, this was my first SLR. see http://www.praktica-users.com/cams/l/supertl1000.html for a manual.

You actually depress the depth of field preview button (big rectangular black one just next to the shutter release) to enable the meter.

This camera served me well, the only complaint I had about it is that the viewfinder's image was rather dim even when you weren't stopping down to meter the scene.

regards
Peter

 

[Steve Roberts]

Another Rescue Mission

This beauty from the GDR was headed for the knackers yard. Jena aperture blades seized,film advance leaver wouldn,t return,the meter was dead and the body had suffered years of neglect.
I fixed the lens and return leaver.All the body needed was a good cleaning (windex & Q-Tips). Got the meter fired up but,man,its way outta wack. My question is this: I have heard of "stoped down metering".Can I use the depth of field button to establish the proper exposure? If not can anyone suggest how to fool the meter? (it seems to be off by about 3-4 stops).

Mike

Mike,

Have you had a look on this forum?
http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/forum/
Perhaps the meter can be adjusted. 3 - 4 stops might seem a lot, but I just tweaked a Pentax Spotmatic meter to accommodate a silver oxide battery and the range of adjustment on the potentiometer was huge. I may be wrong, but I had an old Super TL (not the later "1000" version) a long time ago. Didn't they take a PX625 cell? If so, perhaps the cell now in there is an EPX625, which has a higher voltage. There was quite a bit of correspondence on APUG a few months back regarding meter circuits, battery voltages, etc..
Good luck!

Steve

 

[Mark Layne]

Another Rescue Mission

This beauty from the GDR was headed for the knackers yard. Jena aperture blades seized,film advance leaver wouldn,t return,the meter was dead and the body had suffered years of neglect.
I fixed the lens and return leaver.All the body needed was a good cleaning (windex & Q-Tips). Got the meter fired up but,man,its way outta wack. My question is this: I have heard of "stoped down metering".Can I use the depth of field button to establish the proper exposure? If not can anyone suggest how to fool the meter? (it seems to be off by about 3-4 stops).

Mike

Far as I know those Practikas can ONLY meter stopped down which is why you may think the meter crazy
Mark