Industrial

Pentacon six TL (earlier, at the turn of the 50s and 60s called Praktisix, later, after some
modifications, sold in the West in the 80s and 90s as Exakta 66) was one of the main
medium format cameras available on the official Polish market. It was very popular among
professional photographers, scientists, and also photography lovers. Possession of such
camera was a real distinction. The camera was perfect (and it still is) for taking artistic
photos. Pentacon six was expensive. Its price was more or less equal to the price of 35
mm Exakta (i.e. 4, 6 average Polish salaries). This camera is characterized by the fact
that it's handy, it has a lot of accessories and great lenses made by Carl Zeiss Jena. It
hasn't removable film cartridges, but the prices on the second hand market are so low
that it's cheaper to buy a couple of bodies than one original film cartridge e.g. for
Hasselblad. View finding system is especially well equipped. Pentacon six has 4
removable view finders and 7 different focusing screens (among others: focusing screen
with rangefinder and with half tone screen). In addition, one can use lenses made by
Arsenal Kiev company with mount for Kiev 60 (e.g. Arsat 3,5/30 fish eye, previously called
Zodiak) with this kind of camera. Make sure you don't buy run-down camera (e.g. after
professional photographer) which can have defective film transport or shutter. There are
still a lot of photographers in the whole world who use these cameras. There are also
many websites about these cameras, unfortunately not in Polish language. My father
used to take photos with Pentacon six. I would like to share with others my remarks
concerning this camera. I'll try to describe camera body and most of system lenses, like
those made by: PENTACON and Carl Zeiss Jena. I will also present removable view
finders, focusing lenses and many accessories for macro-photography, reproduction etc.
Taking photos with Pentacon six in running order is really rewarding. Big, sharp photos
make great impression on watching people! And little curiosity at the end. The name
PENTACON is composed of two abbreviations: "PENTAprism CONtax" and is related to a
ban of using the name CONTAX by East German company for its 35 mm SLR cameras
(and not only). Here, we have for the first time in the whole world pentagonal prism
permanently built into the camera.