Review by Richard de Bulat
This is the first in a short series of reviews about buying a camera with a budget in mind: in this case, what to buy with £100.00. Of course there are a few cameras you can buy in this range that will serve you well as a first camera, but I thought it might be worth buying a system camera that you can add to, relatively cheaply and get good results as a general amateur or student of photography. The camera that I chose at this price point was the Praktica MTL5 that comes with a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 lens at £69.00, to which I added a Photax Paragon 135mm f2.8 at £29.00 for a grand total of £98.00 in all.
I used Kosmo Agent Shadow, a film I have not used before and will make comments on how I got on with this. Since the camera uses M42 lenses I added a 55mm Takumar to use for comparison with the kit lens and set out on the Torpoint Ferry in less than great conditions, for the most part.
If you research this kit, you are going to get mixed reviews and it is no point comparing it with more expensive cameras and lenses, let alone a professional set-up; from my point of view, I want to know if it is good enough and value for money and I’m going to say from the outset that it is not at all bad. In my experience, the problem with older East German and Old Soviet era gear is that it is a bit hit and miss. When you get good you get pretty good, but it can vary, so it is worth checking everything out. Additionally, there is a qualative difference between the Pentacon lens and the Pentax Takumar lenses that were highly rated back in the day, but I will let you make your mind up which lens was used for each image. I added the Photax Paragon because it fitted within the budget, but without much expectation of what its performance would be; actually, it is okay and a surprising performer for the price.
The day was a bit flat, but nevertheless fairly bright, so with 400asa film I could use a fairly fast shutter speed and smaller apertures. I think that I read somewhere that the Pentacon lens works best around f5.6 and I used it across the range f2.8 to f11. The camera’s lightmeter works, but you need to use it with care if shooting into back-lit subjects or against white skies as I did.
The Pentacon lens focuses down to just over a foot or 33cm and I took a close-up of the film carton with it, using a tripod, as a test for the film as much as the lens. The image definitely looks soft, but the print on the film box is also grainy and not particularly distinct – other shots taken with this lens look good to my mind and completely acceptable, as was the Paragon lens although this was the least good in terms of contrast, but not at all a bad performer overall.
I developed the film in Ilfotol 3 and scanned the negatives into lightroom. The film is fine grained, but without any distinctive edge sharpness to the grain, which might be improved to some extent if I had used Rodinal as the developer. I had to work a bit on the negs in Lightroom; ordinarily, I try to do as little as possible, but to improve contrast and bring out the range of tones I like, I probably took a bit longer than normal and this may have been down to the film stock, lighting conditions or development choices, but that is the way with a new film stock that you have to get used to. Overall, I don’t think that the results are anything to complain about and this is a workable kit for the price. If I were to make any changes, I would swap out the Pentacon lens for a Super Takumar, which will cost a little more and then look to pick up further Pentax or Carl Zeiss lenses as funds permit.
If £100.00 was what I had to spend, then this is the kit I would get and recommend. The camera is basically reliable and there is a good range of M42 lenses that are really budget friendly. Invest in this system and upgrade as you go, adding, perhaps, a Pentax SV as an additional camera body.
