German dialects + Praktica joins the Trabant as DDR achievement

A longish film in Saxon dialect (with Regular German and Englisch subtitles) has some use of the Praktica.

 

Benebelt von Bierdunst und Trabi-Duft fahren zwei Sachsen in ein slowakisches Skigebiet.

:cool:

 

link

 

Several shots of a Praktica L series camera are introduced about halfway.

 

If you love east German accents. Trabis. and Prakticas this is for you. A German version of Second City's "Bob and Doug" - Hosers.

Edited February 1, 2019 by JDMvW

I guess I wouldn't know about accents. My German consists of WWII movies with subscripts, and Hogan's Heroes (die Helden) ;) I saw a Trabant once, behind a Soviet Chic concrete apartment building in Budapest. Edited February 1, 2019 by Ed_Ingold

The L series Praktica cameras were remarkably successful - According to the Praktica Collector website, more than 4,800,000 were made in 20 years - 1969 to 1989.

My second car was a Trabant, but I can't say I loved it. What a disaster on wheels! I wised up and got myself an Opel Rekord.

As the boys in the film say, as they pass along in a cloud of blue smoke -- it's all those 4-cycle cars that are fouling up the air. :D

 

 

 

 

My wife's first car was an Opel station wagon (beloved of Consumer Reports). Not beloved by her.

Edited February 3, 2019 by JDMvW

I'd actually like to have a vintage 35mm camera. Zeiss, Voigtlander, Practika..... It would need to be fully functional, as I'd use it.

'd actually like to have a vintage 35mm camera. Zeiss, Voigtlander, Practika..... It would need to be fully functional, as I'd use it.

 

I do, in fact, highly recommend the L-series Prakticas. They use the "Universal" M42 screw mount for which some really classic lenses have been made. they have an excellent vertical metal shutter that is very reliable. Fully manual focus and aperture control

 

However, early autofocus camera bodies like the early Canon EOS film cameras are available for the price of a cheese pizza and up to a large supreme pizza.

Lenses there are more expensive, because those are the same as those that work on modern Canon digital SLRs. They are automatic exposure and focus.

Thanks. I'd rather have something a bit more... esoteric. Was recently reading about Prakticas, this thread is somewhat timely! Seems they made SO many cameras in their time... early L series or later?

The "plain jane" base models of the L series Prakticas are my favorites- L, L2, etc.

Here's my 'report' on the L2

Praktica L2 - Second Generation L basic camera

 

for a listing of virtually the gamut of Prakticas, see Dr. Mike's site (LINK).

The good ones are the models built after the Berlin Wall went up ("we're stuck here so we might as well...") The worst ones are those just before that time.

My first SLR was a Practika LTL, with match needle TTL metering. I still have it, and it still works. It has a tendency every 100 frames or so to not quite wind on properly, so that two frames overlap. The other issue I have had is a slightly sticky lens diaphragm, so that using a fast shutter speed causes overexposure, as the diaphragm can't quite keep up with the stop-down mechanism. I quite like the earthquake ker-thunk it makes when the shutter goes off!