A Mystery Praktica

[rick_drawbridge]

I found this combination of camera and lens at church fair. They certainly have all the

hallmarks of collectability, but the camera remains rather a mystery. In every detail, so

far as I can ascertain, it's a Praktica lV, but it doesn't carry the Praktica brand name, or

any other name, for that matter; just the KW logo and some stampings on the leather at the

rear. I append a rather inadequate picture.

 

My usual sources of information on Praktica matters have not been able to provide much

information, and I'd really like to know where the camera fits into the Praktica genealogy.

If anyone can help, I'd be grateful.

 

The lens, a huge and unwieldy Amitar, is also rather unknown; Japanese, I believe, the brand

seems to be more associated with enlarging lenses over recent years. It would be the biggest

and clunkiest 135mm f1:2.8 I've encountered, but despite some fairly primitive and seemingly

uncoated glass the results are surprisingly good. I've thrown in a couple of it's products

for good measure.<div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

The Markings<div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

Pic one:<div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

Pic two:<div></div>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

The markings on the back do not help too much. The 1Q marking was the east-german marking for "world class products".

 

Anyhow, for some Praktica cameras there are a lot of different known engravings, sometimes they seem to change from batch to batch.

[razondetre]

Hmm. Look at that rewind knob. This looks like an early model of IV. Very few people know this but Praktica came up with a rapid rewind knob that looks the same as a regular knob (instead of the usual rewind knob you would see on a Japanese camera). Your knob doesn't have a slit around its knurled circumference but, for those Praktica owners who do, if you gently lift the top of your rewind knob it will lift and you can flip it sideways resulting in the knob assuming a number 8 appearance. Then you grab the outer part of the knob and it is a really quick and nice rewind device. Only found one with this arrangement so far but the guide book shows all the cameras with that slit knob.

 

Amitar was one of those products built to show appeasement to the West for its participation in the war. Amity. Peace. Pax. Happy. All those strange brand names denoting friendly intentions.

[Andy Collins]

Great catch Rick, made even better by the mystery surrounding it. The lens seems to perform quite nicely though.

[gene m]

Very handsome. The weather vane photo is excellent.

[edward_deangelis]

Google Kamera-Werke.

[CosteaM]

a quick Google turned out this link: http://www.praktina.com/histkw.htm.

I think this is where it belongs, at least going by the KW logo. let us know where it fits in the history.

cheers

[longname]

Awesome!

 

I should go to church more...

 

Maybe it's an export model that never got rebadged? Meant for a British or American retailer? That would explain the export marks and why it's not stamped with an "East" or "Soviet Occupied" Germany?

[JDMvW]

This is Hummel Nr 139, shown at http://www.praktica-collector.de/139_Praktica_IV.htm. It is the very first of this model line--the IV and V models. Only the first model variant had the black front with the KW logo.

 

The absence of the Praktica IV line above the VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden logo could be due to either

 

1) On some Prakticas of this period, the brand name was simply printed on the camera and could be worn off. Some times when this happens the letters will show up if looked at from an extreme side angle.

 

or

 

2) As noted, Prakticas were imported privately by many companies and could have various brand names applied to them, so it is possible that it was made without the actual name for rebranding or sale as a "generic" camera.

 

Here is the full entry for this model from R. Hummel, Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden, 1995, unfortunately a very rare book.<div></div>

[JDMvW]

You can see how the letters have worn off on this later Praktica IV variant.<div></div>

[rick_drawbridge]

What a great response! Thanks to you all for your time and trouble. I've inspected the camera closely and can detect no vestiges of former lettering; I tend to lean towards the theory that it was intended to be re-branded, or sold as a generic SLR on some world market. I suggest that the fact that it's country of manufacture is stamped as straight "Germany" tends to support me in this belief, as it's quite unusual to find no finer distinction in cameras of this era, in my experience.

[subbarayan_prasanna]

Your pictures are excellent. I think the Praktica shooters have been ones with a lot of dedication and unique styles of their own, have held their own despite a lot of put down of the Dresden products by the market promoters of the later years. Kudos!

Regards, sp

[User_4136860]

It could be that the reason the camera has no brand name is that it's a prototype.