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Praktica MTL-5 Reviewin Reviews: Film Cameras |
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By ahriman/Angra (1,112) 
on February 25, 2002 9:00:51 AM CST
Praktica? Who's that, then? Praktica? Who's that, then? For those of you who dont know, Praktica was a make of East German camera made by a company called Pentacon (more like the East German camera manufacturer), subsidised heavily in the Eastern Bloc way, like the Russian Zenit and Kiev camera manufacturers. Unlike the Russians, however, Pentacon was founded on the basis of the old Contax company in fact, Pentacon actually stands for PENTAprism CONtax, a name they adopted when the West German Zeiss wing began litigation over the use of the name Contax. Because of this, the quality control and engineering is a world away from the Russian cameras. The MTL series were one of the last Praktica screw mount cameras before they switched over to the newer, more flexible bayonet mount. Manufactured well into the early eighties, the MTLs are probably one of the most common Praktica screw models around.
So what does it do, eh?Because of the way they were funded, Pentacon were able to produce cameras at a significant loss in order to undercut their Western and Japanese competitors.The MTL-5 is lightweight, compact (although not quite as compact as the old Pentax Spotmatic series) and functional. In terms of features, it does in fact compare favourably even today 1/1000th second top shutter speed down to 1 second and a B setting for manually timed long exposures; useful 1/125th flash sync; vertical travel metal shutter blades; live hotshoe and sync socket; depth of field preview which also incorporates the stop-down metering mechanism; TTL meter that is pretty accurate even with alkaline batteries (they were built to use the older mercury ones); smooth wind-on lever; bright, split-prism focussing aid; and firm build quality. Being a later model, it has the advantage of being able to accommodate most of the screw mount lenses ever made some earlier bodies were not so forgiving, especially of lenses whose rear elements extend back a little way into the mirror box I have a Yashinon 50mm f1.4, for example, that gets in the way of the mirror on my SP500 and a friends Chinon CS, but it works fine on the Praktica similarly, some of the later SMC Takumars with the metering coupling do not fit into some screw mount bodies, and again the MTL-5 has no issues with them at all. My MTL-5 was my workhorse for a year, and I only sold it early this year to make way for the aforementioned Pentax SP500.
But...Despite my ravings above, the MTL-5 has a couple of irritating points.One of the early Contaxs distinct features was a shutter button placed not on top of the camera body, but on the front, angled 45 degrees outwards, next to the stop-down lever, and Praktica (and the separate Praktina line) carried on with this design lineage. This unfortunately does not make for an awfully comfortable shooting position, and as a result, coupled with the heavy mirror and shutter action, makes handholding below 1/60th second pretty much impossible without shake unless you are using a wideangle lens. Even 1/60th is not recommended unless youre using flash. In terms of build, although the Prakticas are far better built than the Zenits, they still feel sort of cheap-y compared to the solid weight and silky mechanisms of a Pentax or a Yashica screw mount body. The viewfinder also has quite limited coverage of the frame about 85-90% (Id have to do some tests to be sure). Otherwise, though, an MTL-5 is a recommended camera for beginners and an ideal second camera if you already have a screw mount system when my Yashica TL Electro-X developed a light leak, the Praktica filled in admirably until I repaired the Yashica. Unlike some other budget systems (Praktica bayonet, for example) it has the opportunity of starting with cheap lenses (most MTLs come fitted with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f2.8 Tessar, which is not the sharpest lens in the world, but it is a reasonable performer) and moving up to some extremely fine lenses (the old Pentax Super and Super-Multi-Coated Takumars are extremely fine performers and my Super-Takumar 55mm f1.8 still outperforms my AF Nikkor 50 mm f1.8 for sharpness, especially at wide apertures). The same argument can be made for Yashica bayonet cameras you can start with the cheaper Yashica or third party lenses and move onto Carl Zeiss lenses later on however, a 50mm f1.7 Zeiss Planar will set you back a cool £50 (about $75), whereas a 55mm f1.8 SMC Takumar will cost you around £25 ($35-40).
And finally...The MTL-5 is a great starter camera in a great and underrated system. It has its flaws, but they are forgivable given the low price and availability of this camera. The Yashica TL Electro-X might be a better camera in every department, but just try finding one in fully working condition on Ebay for less than $50 - they are the proverbial rocking horse spoor. The MTL series are very common, and because of their solid reliability, this means there are a lot of mechanically very good models out there. If youve been shooting on a compact camera until now, or a cheaper digital, one of these cameras bought on Ebay would be a perfect, cheap next step up in expanding your photographic horizons.
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