Pentacon, Kiev and other "Commi" Cameras.

This Pentacon Six is by no means flimsy or shabbily constructed. When I first discovered these cameras for myself, I was first impressed by their quality and simplicity. I then learned of the huge number of good lenses available for the Pentacon mount. 

"The Pentacon Six is a high quality medium format single lens reflex camera taking 120 and 220 film for 12 or 24 exposures that are nominally 6cm x 6cm (2¼ x 2¼ inches) – actually 56mm x 56mm, as is standard for medium format cameras." 

http://www.pentaconsix.com/TheCameras.htm

The Pentacon Six

The Pentacon Six is a high quality medium format single lens reflex camera taking 120 and 220 film for 12 or 24 exposures that are nominally 6cm x 6cm (2¼ x 2¼ inches) – actually 56mm x 56mm, as is standard for medium format cameras.  A TTL metering prism (shown on this camera) is available, as well as an enormous range of lenses and other accessories.  The camera and its predecessor, the Praktisix, was manufactured in East Germany (the GDR) between the mid 1950s and 1990.

For guidance on loading the Pentacon Six, click here.

To read about using flash with the Pentacon Six, click here.

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Good stuff. All of them. Sheilded from Western exposure the Pentacon and a number of similar cameras were living and breathing and digesting film and making great and historical photographic records. So the algorythms and formulae were a bit different than those we were familiar with--they actually made remarkably fine cameras with exceptional optics and many of them way before similar designs emerged in the West or Far East.

Dresden, Germany, the post war home of all things optical and German hosted numerous excellent camera and optics companies. The best in the world by most accounts. Even as one company trained those who would begin other companies and many from the same gene-pool, most bore remarkable similarities as trade secrets were increasingly comon knowledge.

 

The original company began by Zeiss, itself was splintered into many diverse plants some specializing in this or that componenet of the camera. Czechoslvakia also was producing less-well-known but equally impressive products on their own. Then WWII came. Many of these companies made great advancements during this time to support the war effort.

 

After the war ended and Stalin Chruchill and Roosevelt divied the conquered lands up Dresden fell into the hands of the Soviet Union. The great Zeiss lens plant in Jena was kept in tact for a time and then carted off to Kiev Ukraine lock, stock, and designer.

 

The Soviets always had a way of makingt hings work--cheaper. A case in point is the Pentacon 6 SLR with a full contingent of lenses available due to an early Soviet standardization of lens mounts. Jena lenses are said to lack the quality control that Zeiss formally had. I don't know. All the tests I've seen and all of my personal experience tells me that this may be so much propoganda. The lenses are excellent--and vastly less expensive than Western medium format competitors.

The story has long beentold of how the Soviets borrowed the designs of original focal plane Hasselblads, from the Zeiss plants (since Zeiss made Hasselblad lenses). The Kiev 66 is earily similar to those models. Of course resverse engineering might easily account for this. Some former Soviets tell another story. They say that Hasselblad ripped off their designs. Since the Hasselblad products didn't  arrive until 1948 in the rough--who knows? I don't.

What I do know, is that the Kiev Hasselblad is an excellent product for a fraction of the money. The pentacon is even better, for my taste. The design is really unlike any other vintage medium format camera. It wouldn't be until the late sixties or early seventies before we saw an overgrown 35mm body, supposedly due to the expense of lenses that big. Not only did the Pentacon have the ecellent array of lenses they and the body too, were much more compact than the Pentax 67--which I had one of--just recently sold. The Pentax was indeed a war-horse and quite useable once you got past a few idiosynchrosies, but so was the Pentacon Six and later models. And probably with fewer indiosynchrosies.

We used to call the bunch of them Commi Cameras in disdain. Little did we know. Exacta, Perfekta, Pentacon, Kiev--they all were and are fiable film cameras. I just wish I had had access to the quality for the money forty years ago.

I have had in my collection two such cameras--now on the auction block. The Kiev is new in the box with complimet of lenses and other accessories. What can I say. I like it. Certainly as much as I like the first run of focal plane Hassy's--and I do like mine (they too are for sale).

 

Note the stop-down lever to preview actual depth of field. A number oif different viewfinder screens as well as finders including TTL Prism and non-prism finders are available.

The other is a Pentacon Six, which I could have got for less money but I was so enamoured by the low cost and great quality that I wasn't quibbling about. I like this camera more than the kiev. It feels good. The lenses are relatively cheap--and even a hobby photographer can aford some super-wide angle lenses for this camera. They are all over the Internet now. People are still discovering the Pentacon Six. sometimes I see them or the lenses go for peanuts, but less and less frequently do I se the super-good deals now versus even a couple years ago.

http://www.commiecameras.com/sov/index.htm

http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Pentacon_Six

If you are looking for a medium format SLR System that you can afford--you should taker a close look at this family of cameras.

The Following is another Article that I wrote about the Pentacon Cameras. You may find a similar theme, but with more or evolved information, as I wrote this article much later than the first blog post.

Pentacon Six TL—Where the Legacy Began

 

WWII  The Zeiss had plants and sister companies all over Germany. Dresden had long been the cradle of modern lens craftsmen, and the Zeiss and other lesser known companies spawned a host of  camera companies, including Rolleiflex., and of course Zeiss Ikon Contax .

 

After WWII Germany was divided between the Allied and Axis Powers and the famous Berlin Wall went up. Both Dresden and nearby Jena were suddenly shrouded behind the Iron curtain of the USSR as the east part became Occupied German Republic, and important satellite of the USSR.

 

The Soviet industrial complex made full use of the knowledge, designs, and craftsmen found within these cities including the Zeiss plants. Some in the West feel that the Haselblad design of the Model 1600 was compromised through these plants, because Zeiss was a maker of some of their lenses, after Kodak could not keep up with production.

 

It is irrefutable that the Kiev 88, earlier known as, the Salyut, is a virtual copy of the Hasselblad. But some in the East insist that it was their design that was actually copied by Hasselblad. Who knows.

 

What we do know is that the Practica camera Designs pre-date WWII. The camera was probably inspired by the German-made Reflex Korelle. And the same great design was more or less scaled up to produce a similar 6x6 Medium Format camera. The family of cameras that came from this basic design are several. The Praktasix, The Pentacon Six, The Pentacon 60, The Kiev 6, Kiev 6 Tl, Kiev 6 TTL., 60 TTL, and several other variants.

 

In my experience, the best is the Praktasix, followed oh so closely by the Pentacon Six silver model with the Jena lens. Jena lenses are ledgendary in quality. They are only found on the very earliest versions of this family of cameras. Quality control is said to have become eratic once the plant was relocated to Kiev (although these too can be very fine cameras).

 

I have handled and used all of the models  mentioned,. I have nothing negative to say about them—other than they all have their strngths and weaknesses. I only wish I had access to them back when. I have loved my Hasselblads, but circumstances may have been different if I had had one of these early models of the  Pentacon Six Genre of 6x6 cameras.