6 replies to this topic

[Marcus Rowland]

I bought a job lot of photographic odds and ends which included a detachable pentaprism. The snag is that there is no logo or other labels to say what it fits, and I have no idea, which will be a pain when I sell it. The most distinctive feature is that the outer casing seems to be plastic, not metal, and the screen is plain ground glass, not plastic. I'm pretty sure it isn't Exakta Varex, I think I owned all the prisms at one time or another, it looks too modern for Edixa, and the build quality doesn't seem good enough for Nikon or Canon F1. I've a feeling that the detachable Pentax prisms were bigger, containing parts used for metering. So that leaves things like the Praktica that had a detachable prism, the late Exakta RTL1000 that was basically a Praktica with a different lens mount, and so forth. Anyone recognize it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

later - just took a look at some pictures of the plain (non metering) RTL 1000 prism and it looks VERY similar, so I think it's that. But can anyone remind me what the Praktica was with the removable prism from the same era? I'd like to eliminate that to be sure.

 

more later - Google to the rescue! The other one is the VLC Praktica and they're basically the same camera apart from the lens mount. So far as I can determine the prisms are identical.

 

I'll leave this up because it was an interesting puzzle, even if I solved it more easily than I expected.

[Brian]

Any writing at all?

 

There was also a Russian 35mm SLR with detachable prism, fashioned after the F2.

[Marcus Rowland]

Any writing at all?

 

There was also a Russian 35mm SLR with detachable prism, fashioned after the F2.

 

No writing at all - no numbers, letters, mysterious symbols or anything. I'm convinced it's for the VLC Praktica or Exakta RTL 100, once I was able to remember the names I found photos on line and their plain non-metering prisms look identical. But can you remember the name of the Russian one, just to be sure I should check it out.

Never mind - it's the Almaz, doesn't look much like the prism I've got.

 

Almaz - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

[Brian]

The Russian camera was the Almaz-103, had a metering prism and an eye-level.

 

I was going to remark that including the focus screen in a removable prism was "unusual", until I remembered that Nikon also did this. Rather than play a "Trivia" game, the DX-1 for the F3AF has he focus screen built into it like this one. SO: this mystery prism inspired the DX-1...

[nikdood17]

Curiouser and curiouser. You don't seem to show the front of the gizmo where any nameplate would be. I'd love to see that view. I'm quite amazed at how easy my Exacta VX1000 pentaprism comes out. But It does not seem to be an Exacta.

[Marcus Rowland]

It's black without any logo. Unusually, the outer casing is plastic, not metal. I'm about 95% certain it's for Exacta RTL1000 or VLC Praktica, they're not the same design as the Exakta Varex though they do look similar. The arrangement that holds the screen in place is fairly distinctive and easy to see e.g. In this ebay listing:

http://www.ebay.ie/i...pcAAOSwOVpXbOKN

[Marcus Rowland]

Final word on this - the guy who bought it left positive feedback so I asked what he was using it for - answer was an Exakta RTL1000.