Praktica III

The forgotten Praktica

The Praktica what you may ask ? The Praktica III. Never heard of it!

No most people have never heard of the Praktica III, let a lone seen or used one.

So then what was it, when was it made and by whom?

Well it was produced for only 6 months, between 1955 and 1956, 13,985 units were produced, the manufacturer was K.W. (VEB Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz) of Dresden in the G.D.R. and the designer was according to http://www.praktica-collector.de Siegfried Bohm. There is very little info on the internet about this camera, most sites telling the history of Praktica do not even mention it, which is strange. Others call it a FX2, but it wasn't, it was a separate model in it's own right.

The Praktica III came directly before the Praktica FX2 and for all intents and purposes it does indeed look like the Praktica FX2. But there is no mention of FX2 anywhere on this camera, the name plate just reads Praktica.

So what is the difference ? Well the main thing is that there is no internal aperture release, the little arm that springs out and hits the auto aperture release pin on automatic lenses. That's about it really, apart from a slightly different re-wind knob. Where you would expect the release mechanism to be, there is just a place for the body number, that's it. See picture below. The body number on this example is number 203641.

I like the look of this camera, it's typical East German in look and feel and in my opinion it looks and feels just right. But yes, I am biased, I do like East German cameras and East Germany, so maybe mine is not a very subjective view point! Anyway, lets have a quick look around this camera.

From the back the main feature is the fixed waist level viewfinder with its little magnifier for critical focusing, the screen is bright and for me a spectacle wearer, I find a waist level finder much easier to use than an eyelevel one and of course you can lift up the hinged top panel and it becomes a straight though 'sports' finder which again I like.

The reversed image does take some getting used to, but I quite like the idea. The waist level finder and the manual lens combination will just slow the whole process of taking a picture down. Lets see if I still think that once a film has been put through it!

The re-wind knob is on the left, the film wind on is on the far right, this winds the film on and charges the shutter. The shutter speed dials are a bit unusual, for fast speeds the red arrow on the top dial points to the black arrow on the top plate and for slow speeds the red arrow on the top dial points to the red arrow on the top plate. The speed of your choice is selected by the red mark on the outer ring. So on the pictures above and below,100th of a second is selected.

The lens on this particular camera is the entry level 50mm Meritar by E.Ludwig, it is lens number 1308772 and looks to be in good condition, but the Iris selection ring does not move the iris at all, which is a shame. I have just bought this camera last week on e-bay, and the fault was not pointed out. I hate it when people do that.

Its a pity, the glass looks good, but not to worry, I did not pay a great deal for the camera, and I have other lenses to try in it. Ideally I would like to find a Zeiss Tessar of similar age for it, but they are getting quite expensive these days. Might just get the Meritar fixed

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The back of the camera is not hinged so it just lifts off after sliding up the catch on the side of the body.

The shutter blinds look okay, the film track etc well made. The little round button you can see, is for opening the view finder.

There are two marks embossed on the camera back, see above pics, one is a diamond with the number 1 in the middle and 00054 underneath which is a type of quality mark, the other says GERMANY U.S.S.R. OCCUPIED and is crudely over painted in white.

Other markings on the camera include this nice KW logo on the camera top plate. The brown leather case is marked Made in Germany

So at £26 with the postage, was it a good buy? I think as far as interest and collectability yes, as a photographic camera to use it all depends on the cost of fixing the lens or getting a better one. Short term, I have other lenses I can use to try it out with, so that is okay. I will try and get a film though it as soon as possible, I'm looking forward to using the waist level finder and the open sports finder, it should be fun!

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

I must apologise for not giving the camera a good clean before taking the pictures, but it was a good day for taking them, I virtually just unboxed the parcel and took the photographs!

Take care,

Phil