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Daniel Jong
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 08:51 pm: | 
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Hi everybody, i've got 1 MTL3 wich is working fine exept for the self-shutter and it leaks somewere. and i've got 1 MTL3 with a none functional light meter.
1) is it posibele to fix the light meter at all?
2) is it dificuld to combine the two? (transfer (part of) the light meter to the other camera)
3) does anyone have a serves manual or know where to get one?
any help would be highly appreceated.
regards
daniel
PS i've never opend a camera before |
Dorian
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - 10:46 pm: |
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Basically, Praktica's are junk. They were made from cheap materials, not put together well and just don't last. There is a reason why no-one is offering a Praktica repair service. My opinion is you are wasting your time fiddling with them. I'm sure a few worked ok for a while when they were brand new but 90% of them now have problems. I'd sell the cameras to a tinkerer with more experience and buy something that you can actually take photos with. Now I'll wait for someone to write in saying Praktica's are the best cameras ever made and convince you to attempt to fix an unrepairable camera. |
Rob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 03:24 am: |
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Hang on. I'll send you an e-mail. I have some info on the "L" Series which may be of some help. I have a Super TL that I've used for the past year. Other than the frame counter, it's been functional, and I'm not taking the top off for that. |
Stephen Brian
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 04:28 am: |
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Daniel
partly to refute Dorian's position I am going to say i like Prakticas, asp the MTL3 as it was my first camera.
The biggest reason i stick with them is the quality of the Pentacon and Carl Zeiss lenses and as I ahve stuck with them over the years I have a fair amount of stuff.
However it is almost certainly not worth paying anyone to try and do the job you describe, let me outline the costs involved - sorry these are British prices but the principles will be the same everywhere. Posting a P anywhere in UK will cost £5 (approx $10 US), a clean lub and adjust service cost about £60 ($100) and return P&P will also apply.
Some repairers might be prepared to take two in order to use one as a donor.
I can recommend Newton Ellis and Co in Liverpool, who i know are happy to take international work, but i can't say whether they'd use your two cameras, it might be worth your while contacting them, but bear in mind you'll not see much change from £100 ($200).
For that sort of money you could buy a good second hand camera from a dealer with a guarantee.
Try and find a tinkerer who'd charge less, I'm currently waiting for a fellow in Suffolk (UK) to do a Parktica job for me - I'll happily let you know how he turns out.
have fun
Stephen |
Mark Wood
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 06:12 am: |
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Praktica in Germany will still repair most models (see: http://www.praktica.de/index.php?iL=2&iO=0&iM=13&iSM=19). They'll apparently even upgrade certain cameras like the Pentacon Six to add a better focussing screen and a mirror lock-up. A company in the UK (Herts Camera and Lens Services) also happily service Pentacon gear. (I believe they've risen from the ashes of what was CZ Scientific, the original UK importer.)
Whilst Prakticas were built to a price, I think "junk" is a bit of an extreme description although everyone will, of course, have different opinions on this. For what it's worth, I reckon there's more chance of a secondhand Praktica MTL working properly than an Olympus OM40 (PC in the USA) of a similar vintage for example! My L and VLC both work fine after 30 years but you might have guessed I was about to say that.... |
Wimpler
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 07:31 am: |
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Calling parktica junk is crazy. I love my praktica MTL3 with metal vertical shutter! The standard pentacon lenses are pretty good, and high quality m42 lenses are available at very interesting prices. |
Rob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 08:14 am: |
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So there. I'm not the only one that likes my Praktica. I got my Super TL for $10.00, and I love my $10.00 Pentacon lens. I got some wonderful vacation shots in with this camera. |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 08:55 am: |
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As with most people who seem to talk utter rubbish on forums,Dorian hides his identity.Any good repair shop will be more than happy to repair any model Praktica.However as we all know the costs involved are more to do with living standards than camera values.For a really cost effective repair on a low end camera find a repairman in India, otherwise its DIY or buy a working replacement.
My first slr was a Praktica FX and I worked my way through the series ending up with a Praktica-Mat with 20mm 25mm and 180mm Zeiss Jena lenses.Yes I purchased new but they all did a heck of a mileage, no breakdowns or malfunctions.
I suspect Dorian has not been inside many cameras.The internals of some Praktica models make the internals of some so called better, more expensive makes look positively crude.Even my beloved A series have their iffy bits!
The most important thing to remember though is the fact that a Praktica will take cracking pictures and there are some very high quality optics available.
Daniel,
Get yourself a good handheld exposure meter and use the MTL3 with the defunct exposure system.I guarantee that overall your photography will improve.Sorry but I see far to many students depending on sophisticated TTL and understanding nothing about the basic principles of exposure.
Glenn. |
Mark Wood
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 09:51 am: |
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...and I almost forgot to add that my all-electronic Praktica EE2 with its full aperture automatic metering and electric lenses is also still working well. It can even survive on just about any battery that fits in the holder!
Recent eBay prices also support the fact that there really aren't many lenses sharper than a CZ 35/f2.4 Flektogon...
Junk?
Glenn's comments are spot on. Any Praktica L series camera with a handheld meter (I'd say Weston V with invercone) is an excellent learning tool and with some careful shopping, all for less than the price of a digital SLR battery! |
Jonathan
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 03:13 pm: |
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Yes, a handheld meter might seem like another thing to carry, but it changes the way you work. With the internal meter in an SLR, you're always twiddling the knobs on your camera trying to get the meter spot on. Then when you use a handheld meter, you realise that the light is usually completely constant. It was just that your SLR was taking readings off darker and lighter objects.
When you use the handheld meter to read incident light, you suddenly realise that you can take a series of shots with the same exposure, all properly exposed, and keep your mind free for more important things.
I prefer meterless cameras because when a built in meter stops working, it bothers me. However, after I've managed to forget that the camera had a meter, I feel much better, and the camera seems more simple and reliable. |
Mark Wood
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 05:51 pm: |
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Well, this all seems to be getting completely off the original topic of helping Daniel to fix his Praktica MTL3 but it must have emphasised the fact that it's worth doing! To make things even worse and take the handheld meter thing one step further, you know that real photography has actually taken over when you take your incident meter reading and correct it because you instinctively know it's half a stop out. Fortunately, whilst you're doing this, the DSLR user is still trying to get past page 107 of the 154 index pages of the first volume of the instruction book that wasn't printed but came as a pdf file on the CD ROM with their new but already out of date camera... Long live Prakticas! |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 06:12 pm: |
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Mark,you have said it all!
Glenn. |
Rob
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005 - 11:06 pm: |
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Amen. If you don't have one, get a CZJ 2.8/50 Tessar or a Pentacon 1.8/50. |
Daniel Jong
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 30, 2005 - 02:01 pm: |
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thank you all for responding.
It has been sofar realy stimulating to hear so manny positive remarks on Praktica. monday i will receve a mtl5 (with four or five lences, macro setup, flashlight and lether casing for 37 euro's)
then i wil start on the repear of the mtl3 (i need a working camera at this point)
thank you rob for your email, its verry helpfull
and its true that second hand praktica's come at a fair price, my whole setup (9 lences 2.5 body's :P and two flash lights) has cost me about 70 euro's
thanks again for all the help and advice and ill reply with the end result ;P
(if anyone has something i realy need to know just poat here ill stick around
regards Daniel Jong |
Dorian
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 07:21 pm: |
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I stand by my assertion that Praticas are junk, you dont need to go inside them to tell that. You don't even need to own one. Just hang around forums like this and see how many people have jammed Prakticas. Or, look on Ebay and see how many have missing screws, rewind knobs, self-timer levers and wind-on trims. All these pieces routinely fall of Prakticas. They are very prone to jamming. The lens mount is plastic! The top and bottom covers are plastic! Over the years, I've bought and sold seven or so Prakticas and not one worked reliably. I finally gave up on them. If you want a good screw-mount camera, ger a Chinon, GAF or Pentax. You can still use your CZJ lenses - which are half-way decent. |
Roberto Rossi
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 10, 2005 - 05:21 pm: |
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Canon A series have plastic top plates and some of their later series were all plastic, mount and all.All Eastern Bloc cameras of a certain period are very poorly built. They were built at a time of great upheaval by people who earned in a year what you probably spend in a month. The cameras were just churned out, no matter what.You can still pick up NOS today!
Everybody who has real experience of Prakticas knows that most models will stand up to much abuse and produce great results. Mine always did and I could load them up tomorrow, knowing that they will still work.
As for CZJ lenses, I have a 180mm/f2.8 Sonnar which outperforms my 200mm/f2.8 Canon FD when used at f2.8. Got the test charts to prove it, never mind the 20"x16" enlargements |
bram holland
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 21, 2005 - 08:07 am: |
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Praktica's (forlast series)are just awful beautiful basic reflexcamera's. They are very stable to make snapshotphotographs with. Big and not too light or too heavy. You can still make sharp shots with it at 1/15 of a second.
I own a few I may say and though the metalblade shutter and mirror are a bit noisy they work more accurate and reliable than my pentax camera's from that same period that sooner or later have transport, lightmetering and shuttercurtainproblems and are therefor in comparison with the prakticas very overestimated although Pentax was only and always the Japanese reaction on the succes of the Praktica. |
Thomas
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 07:41 am: |
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In reply to Dorian's last mail: There is NO Praktica SLR with a plastic lens mount! And the only plastic covered versions within the L-series are the EEs. Imho this is not a real quality criteria anyway.
In reply to the very first mail of this topic: To me it seems to be the easier way that you change the self timer in your first camera (or just live without a working one) and fix the light leakage. In most cases, a self-adhesive foam-strip inside the back-door (close to the hinge) will help. If you need some help in order to open the camera, let me know...
Many greetings from Dresden, Germany! (Home of Pentacon, Praktica, Exa/Exakta and other famous classics). |
