Today I am officially saying goodbye to two of my beloved cameras. My Praktica L2 and Praktica LLC.
The L2 has served me faithfully in the passed 2 years since I acquired it, and has proven itself time and time again. Giving me wonderful memories that will continue to be cherished until I no longer can remember them.
The camera, although I got it for free, has been my favorite fully mechanical SLR. The M42 mount let me experience a whole new line of lenses that I otherwise would never have known existed. The introduction to this camera let me learn more about how a camera works than any other camera or any class could have possibly taught me. Since it did not have a light meter, I had to figure out the lighting on my own, either using a Hand-Held meter, which I did not posess at the time I acquired the L2, or the Sunny ƒ/16 rule. Well, now it is gone to its new home. Although its new home is a temporary one, it will move on from there to someone that will use it more than I had been in the passed few months. Unfortunately, after almost 2 years of service, it become delegated to my display shelf. Not really by choice, per se, but by the fact that I just found myself reaching for my Exakta or Signet 35 more often. In fact, my Exakta has become my 35mm SLR of choice over my wide-range of 35mm SLRs.
Well, 2 weeks ago I packed my Praktica L2 and Praktica LLC into a box, along with 13 rolls of Polypan F 50ASA film, 2 FD Teleconverters, and some prints (not the most outstanding prints) but prints nontheless, and shipped them down to The Film Photography Project.
After 2 years of faithful service, I decided that instead of them becoming shelf-queens, they should be sent out to other photographers to use. Either a budding photographer, or something that is looking for something a little less electronic and more mechanical, it will be wonderful to see this camera become someone else's trusted companion.
That moves me on to the LLC. This is a special camera for me as well.
I had purchased it with the full intention of cleaning it, testing it, buying a "kit" lens for it, and shipping it out the door as a sale item only, with full intentions of it being a money making camera. Instead, I ended up keeping the camera, the lens I ordered I love using (Pentacon 50mm 1:1.8), and couldn't bring myself to selling the camera. It replaced my L2 as the camera of choice, just because it could be locked from accidental exposures, and it wouldn't continuously wind the film on and on and on. The light meter didn't work on it, and yes I did test it fully with a brand new 4.5v battery, but the meter was dead. Not really a problem, as I was used to using my L2, almost identical but without the meter, and I had acquired my late-grandfather's old Sears Tower Selenium Cell light meter. Although I never used it in studio, like I had with my L2, I did use it at places like the Toronto Zoo, and High Park, plus I also wandered around the city with it. Some of my most memorable images with this camera are a photo of a Emu at the High Park zoo, or a photo of my son playing on a manhole cover.
Such as the one to the left, where I was using, as ironic as it is, the Pentacon 50mm 1:1.8 that I had purchased to make the camera a "kit" camera, with a 50mm lens. The lens, though, is just strikingly sharp, and gives such incredible clarity that I had to do a double take when I first saw this negative. It is just perfect, and the lens gives very nice contrast, even shot in bright light. The coatings are more modern than many of my other M42 lenses, and is very similar to a Carl Zeiss 50mm Pancolor lens. Granted, CZ glass is probably a step up from this lens, but not too much of one. Of course, using it for B&W, it's about contrast more than colour rendition!
Speaking of Contrast and colour rendition, though, it does a great job with that as well!
Sure, the image is a little cool (I blame Fuji Superia for that) but it is fairly accurate without too much colour correction in post. But the sharpness for this lens is phenomenal.
There is something about these little cameras that I really will miss. Perhaps it is their charm, or the mirror slap that would make a Medium Format SLR, like the Pentax 67, proud.
Maybe it is the full metal body that can leave more than a simple bruise on your foot if you accidentally dropped one of these cameras on it. They are heavy, awkward, and some even say downright ugly to look at. But there is something about them.. The charm of these old Communist Germany cameras that just leaves you a little more humbled about the Automatic cameras that came out of Japan. These old clunker cameras aren't just good, they are a piece of photographic history that I am proud to have been a part of.
Sure, they don't have Autofocus, or Program mode, even if their Japanese competitors had Shutter Priority modes, or even Aperture priority modes.
The one thing they didn't lack, was character. That is what really sets the Praktica cameras, at least in my eyes, apart from the rest.
So I say goodbye to a pair of cameras that brought me closer to film photography, and rejoice at the knowledge that they are going to be used in the way they deserve. Not just to sit on a shelf and collect dust, with the possibility of being used once or twice a year.
To those that will receive either of these wonderful cameras, please remember, they are a part of history. They are brilliantly designed, and simple to operate.
They are one of a kind.......
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| Apple Blossoms - Praktica LLC - Vivitar 135mm ƒ/2.8 - Fuji Reala |
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Forgotten Combination - Praktica LLC -
Pentacon 50mm ƒ/1.8 - Fuji Superia 200 |
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| Bike Locks - Praktica LLC - Pentacon 50mm ƒ/1.8 - Fuji Superia 200 |
