The Praktica VF of 1964

The Pentacon Praktica VF of 1964 was an up dated version of the 1959 KW Praktica IV. It is virtually the same camera as you can see above by its shape, but mechanically it has the 'new' shutter speed designation where 100th of a second is replaced by 125th of a second and 200th makes way for 250th and so on. Also by now these cameras had a brighter Fresnel screen and a very useful split image focus aid, which makes the camera much easier to focus than the old IV of 5 years before and with the VF came an instant return mirror, so no more black outs after firing the shutter! The VF also had the little orange wind on reminder triangle sat in the top left of the viewfinder, to stop you forgetting to wind on, this was found in the Exa cameras of the similar vintage, a feature that I grew up with and found very useful.

Cosmetically the black prism had of course gone, the KW logo no longer was used on the later models, the VF just having the Pentagon tower logo embossed onto the black cover material on the camera back. The body covering material itself was of a different style to the first IV version. Looking at the picture above, I think the two cameras look an age apart, the VF looking a lot more modern than the original IV, though I like the earlier look.

The best improvement to me, one often overlooked by modern reviews is the improved film counter. On the early IV it was silver with black numbers, but on this VF sat in front of me it is black with with white numbers, which I find much easier to read. Also 50years on, the later white on black are still sharp and contrasty, whereas you tend to find black markings on silver have faded badly on many examples.

If you gently pull up the film reminder / re-wind knob shown above the top half splits off into a figure eight configuration, which allows you to rewind the film quickly just using your finger.

The bottom wind on lever is a lovely feature, how many cameras have top and bottom wind on options? The shiny plastic inserts are now black instead of cream.

You can just see the later post 1964 Pentacon Tower logo embossed into the centre of the black covering on the camera back. The KW logo was no more. The Pentacon tower replaced it. The logo originally was the Ernemann tower, which was the former headquarters of Kamera-Werke Ernemann, built in the early 1920's.

Also embossed on the bottom right of the back is a small triangle with curved corners, with the number 1 inside it. I have no idea what this is for, but I'm hoping someone will have!

The lens on this actual camera is the common entry level 50mm 2.8 Domiplan. I doubt it is original to the camera, it looks a fair bit later to me and is suffers from the later Domiplan issues, very stiff focus action and a sluggish diaphragm

I think most of these VF models coming into the UK new, would have had fitted a automatic 50mm Zeiss Tessar lens. A good quality lens for what was a very good quality camera.

.According to http://www.praktica-collector.de/ there were 8740 units of this model produced, between December 1964 and January 1966. The designer was Horst Strehle. This particular example is body number 808869.

The 50mm Domiplan lens is number 9379218. I prefer the early version which had the makers name and location on them.

Back to back. The VF on the left, the IV on the right.

All in all, these Praktica IV series cameras are very well built, stylish, rugged solid and they feel right. Today they don't seem to have much of a following and I don't understand why. Maybe in the U.K. they got a bad name, later Prakticas were heavily subsidised making them reasonably affordable, many had a hard time, and Praktica had a massive market share, making Prakticas in general still quite common here, so reducing collector interest. On the up side this means they are available cheaply at present, yes you will probably need it professionally servicing, but so will most 50year old cameras, buy one, service it and use it before everyone else cottons on!

I hope you enjoyed ready this post.

Take care,

Phil