Tessar on 1950s Exakta 66 precursor to Praktisix mount Tessar?

I just saw a 1950s Exakta 66 with a 80mm single coated Tessar. Was this
lens more or less the same as the 80mm Tessar that was shipped with the
first Praktisix cameras? Were there ever P6 to Exakta 66 (and vice
versa) adapters made?

from: (Sam Sherman) 5-10-04

I have one of the 1954 Exakta 66 cameras and it is very good, as is its 80MM
Tessar, which might be the same lens elements used on the early Praktisix I.

There was an un-hardened wind gear in the 1954 Exakta 66 and early users wound
the winder too fast and easily stripped it. The camera quickly got a bad
reputation even though the factory soon followed up with the proper hardened
gear. The cameras were
soon closed out for short dollars and forgotten.

- Sam Sherman

Now this is just a history question and has no relevance to actual picture taking,
but is there an overlap between the Exakta 66 and the Praktisix, or was there an
actual transition from one to the other? In other words, from a purely historical
perspective, was the Praktisix meant to be a replacement model for the Exakta 66?
And as for winding, it appears the folks at Exakta fixed it in record time
compared to the folks a VEB Pentacon!

FLEXARET2 wrote:

from: (Sam Sherman) 5-10-04

I have one of the 1954 Exakta 66 cameras and it is very good, as is its 80MM
Tessar, which might be the same lens elements used on the early Praktisix I.

There was an un-hardened wind gear in the 1954 Exakta 66 and early users wound
the winder too fast and easily stripped it. The camera quickly got a bad
reputation even though the factory soon followed up with the proper hardened
gear. The cameras were
soon closed out for short dollars and forgotten.

- Sam Sherman

see http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/FAQexakta.txt Exakta.. FAQ (archive copy) and
http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/exakta66.html notes and
http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/praktisix.html

see list of models at Christian Senet from
http://w3g.gkss.de/G/Mitarbeiter/sen...ktisix_iia.htm

this is another case of "current" models being built under old names IIRC

hth bobm
--
************************************************** *********************
* Robert Monaghan POB 752182 Southern Methodist Univ. Dallas Tx 75275 *
********************Standard Disclaimers Apply*************************

There is no doubt that you are right that the
Praktisix/Pentacon 6 has a flimsy wind and one must be careful when using it. I
have had no problems with the wind on these cameras as I have used them for
many years.

The 1954 Exakta 66 is a more robust camera and the wind knob/crank sort of
invites fast use which could lead to stripping the first wind gears. I have
that camera with the hardened gears and have shot quick action sequence photos
with it with no problems. Today it is more of a collectible and so I don't
subject it to hard use.

In the mid 1950s the East German/Soviet-run camera
industry was consolidating many manufacturers under the Pentacon brand
(emerging from KW) so it could be they saw the Praktisix as their new 6x6cm slr
replacing the earlier Exakta 66, although this newer camera was more like the
1938 Exakta Square,
which is a stronger much superior camera to the
Praktisix.

However, that is not to imply that the Praktisix/Pentacon 6 is not a good,
precise camera which came to market with a full system and some
really nice lenses. These are still excellent cameras for use and not abuse.

- Sam Sherman

(FLEXARET2) wrote in message ...

In the mid 1950s the East German/Soviet-run camera
industry was consolidating many manufacturers under the Pentacon brand
(emerging from KW) so it could be they saw the Praktisix as their new 6x6cm slr
replacing the earlier Exakta 66, although this newer camera was more like the
1938 Exakta Square,
which is a stronger much superior camera to the
Praktisix.

In Hummels book 'Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden' (SLRs made in
Dresden) he states that the Exakta66 production was stopped due to the
design of the advance mechanism which required a complete re-design
after many problems during production. Hummel was an Ihagee engineer
then, he should know it. He says that very few actually working
cameras ever left the factory, most had to be reworked to get the
advance mechanism going.

Winfried

(FLEXARET2) wrote in message ...

In the mid 1950s the East German/Soviet-run camera
industry was consolidating many manufacturers under the Pentacon brand
(emerging from KW) so it could be they saw the Praktisix as their new 6x6cm slr
replacing the earlier Exakta 66, although this newer camera was more like the
1938 Exakta Square,
which is a stronger much superior camera to the
Praktisix.

In Hummels book 'Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden' (SLRs made in
Dresden) he states that the Exakta66 production was stopped due to the
poor design of the advance mechanism which required a complete
re-design after many problems during production. Hummel was an Ihagee
engineer then, he should know it. He says that very few actually
working cameras ever left the factory, most had to be reworked to get
the advance mechanism going.

Winfried

(FLEXARET2) wrote in message ...

In the mid 1950s the East German/Soviet-run camera
industry was consolidating many manufacturers under the Pentacon brand
(emerging from KW) so it could be they saw the Praktisix as their new 6x6cm slr
replacing the earlier Exakta 66, although this newer camera was more like the
1938 Exakta Square,
which is a stronger much superior camera to the
Praktisix.

In Hummels book 'Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden' (SLRs made in
Dresden) he states that the Exakta66 production was stopped due to the
design of the advance mechanism which required a complete re-design
after many problems during production. Hummel was an Ihagee engineer
then, he should know it. He says that very few actually working
cameras ever left the factory, most had to be reworked to get the
advance mechanism going.

Winfried

FLEXARET2 wrote:

In the mid 1950s the East German/Soviet-run camera
industry was consolidating many manufacturers under the Pentacon brand
(emerging from KW) so it could be they saw the Praktisix as their new 6x6cm
slr

....not to forget that Ihagee still was a foreign-owned company at that
time, at least officially.

Ralf

--
Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany
private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de
manual cameras and photo galleries - updated April 29, 2004
Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses

Hello Winfried,

The late Alfred Bachenheimer was the chief Exakta expert/official repair tech
in the US and was a friend of mine who serviced many cameras for me, many 35MM
Exaktas and several Exakta 66 models. He worked for Exakta Camera in the US. He
told me
that the main wind gear was unhardened and the
first such cameras reaching the US had many models returned with broken winds.
The factory then supplied the hardened wind gears to the US, but by that time
the camera had a bad reputation and was finished.
New cameras were closed out for about half of the
retail price or less - which was about $170. I still have one of my cameras
which he put the hardened gears
in and it works perfectly. There was nothing wrong with the design only the
quality of a few parts.

- Sam Sherman