Which Praktica do you have? Identify every model, from the super TL to the BX 20

Two Prakticas lie side by side on the flea market table, both silver, both with the same lettering on the prism. Yet there is a whole class between them. The difference is given away by three narrow contact strips around the black ring in the lens mount: they are found only on the VLC, the only M42 Praktica with an interchangeable viewfinder and open-aperture metering. On the MTL 5, by contrast, you press a button, the viewfinder image goes dark, and then you take the reading. Which of the two you're holding, you'll find out here in two minutes, along with every other model in the series.

Cover image: Yaskin Nikita, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Already know your model and just need the right battery? You'll find it in our Praktica battery overview, around eighty models with cell, adapter and instruction manual.

Table of contents

1. The three-question test: which Praktica do you have?
2. Decoding the model designation and its pitfalls
3. The M42 series: all models with year of manufacture
4. The B series: bayonet instead of thread
5. Which series actually needs power
6. What fits your Praktica
7. Typical faults, prices and an honest assessment
8. Further reading: sources, manuals, forums

1. The three-question test: which Praktica do you have?

Three quick checks are enough to place a Praktica in the right family. After that, the model designation is just fine-tuning.

Photo: David Herrmann (Hedavid), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Three B series bodies and, lying in front, an MTL 5 from the M42 series. The angular, silver design versus the rounder black bodies is the quickest way to tell them apart.

Question 1: screw thread or bayonet?

Turn the lens anticlockwise. If it unscrews over several turns, you're looking at the M42 screw thread, the mount that accompanied Praktica from 1948 to 1989. If instead there's a release button and the lens comes off after just under a quarter turn, it's the Praktica B bayonet, built from the end of 1979.

That already gives you a rough date for the camera and, more importantly, places it in one of two technical worlds. Apart from the brand name, the two have little in common: different lenses, different electronics, different spare parts availability.

Question 2: where is the name, and does it even say “Praktica”?

On almost all models of the M42 series, the model designation sits to the left of the prism finder on the front panel, in small raised letters: MTL 3, LTL 3, LB 2, super TL. The PRAKTICA lettering sits centred on the prism. On the B series, the designation usually moves to the other side or onto the prism cap.

If it says something completely different there (Revueflex, Porst reflex, Jenaflex), you still have a Praktica. Exports to the West were largely sold under other names. The matching table is in chapter 2.

Question 3: How does the camera meter light?

This is the question that reveals the most, about the year of manufacture, about the equipment class and about what kind of power supply the camera expects in the first place. Four possibilities:

Features based on the description of the L series on Wikipedia and the model description of the Praktica LTL.

Photo: Dnalor 01, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT via Wikimedia Commons. The bright segments in the black ring are the contact tracks for transmitting the aperture value. On the lens, on the right of the picture, are the gold counter-contacts. If you see these, you have an LLC, PLC, VLC or EE in front of you.

It pays to look underneath. The base plate carries the country-of-origin marking, and it gives a rough date. Early bodies read “PENTACON GERMANY (EAST)”, later ones “PENTACON MADE IN GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC”. Next to it, on all models with a light meter, sits the battery cover, a disc with a coin slot.

Left, an LTL, photo: Thomas Altfather Good, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Right, an MTL 5, photo: Banffy, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Same spot, different marking.

2. Decoding the model designation and the traps it hides

The names of the M42 Prakticas look arbitrary, but they follow a system. Each letter stands for a technical feature, and once you have the key, VLC 3 reads like a spec sheet.

Nomenclature according to Wikipedia, article “Praktica”, section on the third generation.

This lets you read any model. VLC 3 is the third version of the camera with interchangeable viewfinder and open-aperture metering. MTL 5 has the stabilised meter and meters at working aperture. DTL 3 is the same with LEDs. super TL 1000 goes up to 1/1000 s, the super TL 500 only up to 1/500 s.

The four pitfalls

In four places the system is misleading, and these are exactly the places where identification goes wrong.

First: MTL 5, MTL 5B and MTL 50 are three different cameras. The MTL 5 from 1983 is an MTL 3 with a smooth covering. The MTL 5B from 1985 loses the additional flash sync socket and gets a battery compartment for standard button cells. The MTL 50 from the same year replaces the needle meter with LEDs, and therefore needs a different power supply than its two namesakes.

Second: with the LTL, a higher number does not mean progress. The LTL 2 from 1975 shows the exposure via two illuminated fields. The LTL 3 from 1976 goes back to the needle. So the order of the numbers says nothing about the technology, only about the timing.

Third: there are two “super TL” cameras. The original Praktica super TL belongs to the second generation, built from the mid-sixties onwards, with a cloth shutter. The super TL 2 and super TL 3 are L-series models from 1976 and 1978 with a steel blade shutter. Same name, different cameras, a good ten years apart.

Fourth: the name on the camera doesn't have to be Praktica. Pentacon supplied large quantities to the West under other brand names, via the mail-order company Quelle as Revueflex, via Photo Porst as Porst reflex, plus Jenaflex, Hanimex and others.

Photo: Jacek Halicki, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. This camera is called the Porst Reflex CX6. Apart from the top cover, it is a Praktica LTL.

Classification based on the model overview in the Baier Foto forum (source: Richard Hummel, “Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden”) and the object descriptions in the German Camera Museum. The list is not complete; there were further export names for individual markets.

In practice, this means: a Revueflex TL 202 takes the same lenses, has the same shutter speeds and the same battery as a Praktica LTL 3. If you are looking for spare parts or a manual, your best bet is to search under the Praktica name.

Photo: Radoslaw Ziomber, CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons. At the top the MTL 3 with textured covering, at the bottom the MTL 5 with a smooth one. Technically the same camera; on both, the model designation is to the left of the prism.

Video: “How to take photos with the Praktica MTL5 / Revue ML”, channel Analogtechnik. The title names both names of the same camera right away. If you want to see how it is operated step by step, you are better off here than with any text.

3. The M42 series: all models with year of manufacture

The L series is the core of the Praktica story and the reason why these cameras still turn up everywhere today. It ran from December 1969 to December 1989, comprised 49 models including six prototypes and reached 4.836.879 cameras built. At Pentacon in Dresden, a camera came off the line every thirty seconds. The chief designer was Rolf Noack.

Figures from praktica-collector.de, time periods from Wikipedia. The generations overlap because several model series were produced in parallel.

The “L” in the name stands for the vertically running steel blade shutter that replaced the rubberised cloth shutter of its predecessors. It was virtually wear-free and, unlike cloth, unaffected by cold. This very shutter is the reason why an above-average number of L Prakticas still work today.

Photo: Runner1616, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The metal blade shutter of the L series, seen from the film side.

The models in order of release

Model table based on Wikipedia, “Praktica L”. Prototypes, special editions and export variants are not included.

By far the most widely produced type is the one with TTL stop-down metering: more than three million cameras from this subgroup alone. If you have inherited a Praktica, chances are high that it is an MTL 3, MTL 5 or super TL.

Photo: VSchagow, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The dark rectangle on the right below the dial is the selenium cell of the LB 2. It generates its own metering current, so this camera has no battery compartment.

What came before the L series

If your camera has a cloth curtain instead of metal blades in the shutter, it belongs to an older generation. The first Praktica was created in 1948 based on the Praktiflex and introduced the M42 thread; from 1951 it was followed by the FX series with flash synchronisation, and then by the models IV and V. The second generation comprises the nova series, the Prakticamat, the original super TL and the Praktica elektronik.

Ken Davis, who describes more than twenty working Prakticas on 35mmc, gives a sober assessment of this intermediate generation: according to him, they are “nowhere near as reliable” as the later cameras, and shutter failures on the super TL are common. The models IV and V, on the other hand, he considers better built than the nova series. If you are looking for a Praktica to shoot with rather than to collect, you are much better served by the L series.

Photo: Hubert Link, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons / Bundesarchiv. Final inspection at VEB Pentacon Dresden. The company emerged from the camera workshops of Guthe & Thorsch, founded in Dresden in 1919, and traded as Pentacon from 1964.

4. The B series: bayonet instead of thread

In 1978, Pentacon presented the Praktica B 200 at the Leipzig Trade Fair, and series production began in December 1979. The “B” stands for bayonet: instead of the screw thread, there was now a dedicated mount, the PB mount, along with a new lens family called Prakticar. The bodies became rounder and the controls electronic.

Photo: Lysippos, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The B 200 was the base model of the upper line with automatic and manual exposure.

In total, 17 models were produced between December 1979 and December 1990, amounting to 1.164.707 units. Pentacon arranged them in three lines, and this arrangement is the quickest way to classify a B model:

Figures according to praktica-collector.de.

The BX series and the end

From December 1987, the BX series followed with four models and 201.797 units: BX 20, BX 10 DX, BX 21 DX and BX 20s. New features were a different drive for the blade shutter, an ergonomically revised body, TTL flash control according to SCA 321, a matching winder and DX coding for automatic film speed setting. The X in the name stands for exactly this innovation.

The sources disagree on which BX models actually have the DX contacts fitted: praktica-collector.de lists them as a feature of the whole series, whereas the field report on the BX 20 says that only the BX 20s got them. The model names support the second reading: after all, the BX 10 DX and BX 21 DX carry the abbreviation in their names. More reliable than any theory is a look into the film chamber: where the film cartridge sits, you will either see bare contact fingers or you won't.

Photo: NoRud, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The BX 20s was the last model still developed under the traditional Pentacon Dresden.

The series has a twist: DX-coded films were practically unavailable on the domestic market. The BX 20 sold well nonetheless, thanks to the flash control and the winder. After the fall of the Wall, the BX 20S remained in production until 2001, and then the production of analogue Praktica SLR cameras came to an end.

The B series depends on its electronics. M42 Prakticas are mechanical cameras with a light meter on the side; if the meter dies, you simply keep shooting. In the B and BX models, the electronics form all shutter speeds, including those set by hand. Without a battery, you are left with only the mechanical emergency speed of 1/90 s, and if the circuit board fails, that is gone too. Spare parts for it are practically no longer available. That is the more important difference between the two worlds, more important than the bayonet.

5. Which series needs power at all

Once the model is identified, the power question is quickly answered. Praktica cameras fall into four groups, and they follow exactly what you saw in Question 3:

On all M42 models with a meter, the battery compartment sits in the base plate, the disc with the coin slot in the photos further up. On the B series it usually moves into the grip.

The “M” tells you how tolerant the meter is. The M in MTL stands for Messwerkabgleich (meter balancing), a bridge circuit that stabilizes the light meter against voltage fluctuations of the battery. In practice this means: an MTL is less sensitive to a cell with slightly different voltage than an LTL or super TL, which lack this circuit. That is one of the reasons why the MTL models are still considered the most uncomplicated in the series.

Which battery type exactly belongs in your model and which adapter replaces it today is listed in our Praktica overview. Around eighty models are listed there individually, including operating manuals to read up on, from the Jenaflex AC-1 to the Praktisix.

A note on our own behalf, so it is clear where we stand: we make battery adapters and spare parts for these cameras ourselves and earn money from them. That is why we keep our recommendation simple: for most models with a needle meter, a standard cell in the right adapter is enough, and if your light meter is dead anyway, you need none of it at all. The detailed background on the most common Praktica cell is in our article on the PX625, including the options that cost nothing.

6. What fits your Praktica

M42: the largest range of lenses ever made for a single mount

The M42 thread was not a Praktica solo effort but a quasi-standard. Pentax, Zenit, Yashica, Fujica, Chinon and dozens of third-party manufacturers built lenses for it. Every one of them fits a Praktica MTL 3, as long as it has an M42 thread.

Photo: Carlosdisogra, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. A super TL with the Oreston 50 mm 1:1,8 by Meyer-Optik Görlitz.

The East German lens designs are the real reason to take an interest in Praktica. Ken Davis sums it up on Macfilos by saying that the bodies are cheap and the lenses are worth the money:

“electric” on the lens is not an obstacle. Lenses marked electric with gold contact pins belong to the open-aperture metering models LLC, PLC, VLC and EE. On an MTL or super TL they work perfectly normally; the contacts simply have no function there. The reverse is also true: a lens without contacts can be used on an LLC, you just have to switch to manual aperture mode and stop down as on the MTL.

The PB mount: a system of its own with tight limits

Photo: Lysippos, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. A Prakticar 50 mm 1:1,8 for the B mount.

The PB mount was a proprietary development and compatible with nothing else. A dedicated lens range was created for the B series: Prakticar from 20 to 300 mm, plus zooms and later even autofocus lenses. If you have a B camera, you depend on this range; Pentacon did at least supply its own adapter for fitting M42 lenses to B bodies.

Going the other way, things get tight, and quite literally. The flange focal distance of the PB mount is 44.40 mm, Canon EF is 44.00 mm. That leaves 0.4 millimetres of depth for an adapter, and no bayonet adapter can be made that thin. That is why no commercially available PB-to-SLR adapter reaches infinity focus without a corrective lens, and with short focal lengths the error becomes even more obvious. On mirrorless cameras such as Sony E or Micro Four Thirds this is a non-issue; Prakticar lenses work there without any restrictions. If you want to look up the measurements, you will find them on the overview page on the Praktica bayonet at manuelle-objektive.

Photo: Jelle (Netherlands), CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The VLC models are the only M42 Prakticas with interchangeable viewfinders, shown here with a magnifier insert instead of the pentaprism, fitted with a Flektogon 35 mm 1:2.4.

7. Typical faults, prices and an honest assessment

What breaks on these cameras

On the APHOG forum there is a long repair thread on the L series in which the same four cases keep coming up.

1. The slow speeds hang. From 1/15 s downwards the shutter does not run through, and sometimes the mirror flips up without the shutter firing. The cause is almost always gummed-up grease in the escapement. In the thread, Matthias Laur explicitly advises against hitting the camera “with the heel of your hand”: that frees the mechanism briefly and spreads the problem around. The right fix is cleaning and re-lubricating, and that belongs in experienced hands.
2. Streaks on the first frames. A disintegrated light seal at the back door hinge. Christof-G describes the repair as gluing in 1 mm foam rubber or the felt from the mouth of a film cassette. It is a genuine twenty-minute job that you do not need a workshop for, and we have written a step-by-step guide for it.
3. The mirror stays up. This happens on M42 and B models alike. Sometimes it is the same gummed-up grease, sometimes an unhooked lever in the mirror box. Without taking the camera apart, it is rarely possible to tell which for sure.
4. The light meter shows nothing. Often it is just a corroded contact in the battery compartment, sometimes a broken wire to the metering cell. Before you write off a camera because of this: the rest usually keeps working.

Photo: Banffy, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons. The MTL 5 opened up. Clearly visible are the guide rails of the quick-load system and the surrounding groove that holds the light seal.

The top cover is not a beginner's project. Anyone who asks about disassembly in the forum regularly gets the same warning: the shutter speed dial on the L series has glued joints that are hard to undo and even harder to put back together properly. If you do not open cameras regularly, this is the point where a workshop is the cheaper solution.

What a Praktica costs today

On 20 August 2026 we analysed the listings in the photo category on Kleinanzeigen, asking prices rather than selling prices, and most listings include at least one lens:

Our own survey, as of 21.08.2026, sorted by median. Part of the range is explained by the lens kit: bodies alone sit at the lower end, sets with three lenses at the upper end.

The order in this table is the real answer to the question of which Praktica is the sought-after one. The VLC is at the top by a wide margin, its median is double that of the MTL 5, and the top quarter starts at 200 euros. It is the only M42 Praktica on which you can remove the pentaprism and swap it for a waist-level finder or a magnifier eyepiece, and it meters at full aperture instead of forcing you to stop down. Next comes the EE 2 with its aperture priority. At the other end, of all things, are the two most modern bodies: the B 200 and BX 20 are electronic, cannot be repaired and are therefore cheaper than a mechanical MTL 3 from 1978.

The most striking figure, though, isn't in the table. Ken Davis quotes around 100 pounds for sought-after lenses such as the Biotar 58 mm 1:2 or a good Pancolar, so a single lens can cost more than the body it's mounted on. Anyone who buys a Praktica is, in truth, usually buying the optics.

Photo: Alexey Komarov, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

When a Praktica is the right camera and when it isn't

We sell spare parts for these cameras, so let's say it clearly: a Praktica is not the best choice for everyone, and some of the alternatives are objectively more pleasant to use.

It's the right camera if you want to get into analogue photography for little money and are prepared to set aperture and shutter speed yourself. The steel-blade shutter of the L series is remarkably durable, replacements are easy to find thanks to production in the millions, and the East German lenses deliver image quality for their price that is far beyond what the bodies cost. If you're also interested in how cameras were built in Dresden, you get a piece of industrial history thrown in.

It's the wrong camera if you want automatic exposure or coupled metering where you don't first have to press a button while the viewfinder goes dark. A Pentax Spotmatic offers the same M42 thread with smoother operation, and a Canon AE-1 or Minolta X-300 doesn't cost much more and chooses the shutter speed for you. And if you happen to come across a nova, mat or the early super TL, the risk of shutter failure is considerably higher than with the L series, so better keep looking.

And if you've inherited a B or BX camera: shoot with it as long as it works, but don't invest much in it. The lens mount is a dead end, and the electronics cannot be repaired. The nicer heirloom is almost always the M42 camera next to it.

Video: “Praktica MTL3, deutsche Hipster Kamera, Analog Kamera Review”, channel Flanell, Kameras & Film. A review of the most-produced Praktica, with sample images.

Spare parts that are still available

Two parts are missing from used Prakticas particularly often because they are practically made to be lost: the battery compartment cover and the body cap. We make both in Würzburg because they are no longer available anywhere else. The light seal is not a Praktica part, but it fits anyway.

Battery compartment cover for Praktica LLC, VLC, MTL 50, DTL (EUR 23,95) · PX21 battery adapter for Praktica LLC, PLC, VLC, EE (EUR 24,95) · M42 body cap for Praktica, Pentax & Zenit (EUR 16,95) · Light seal kit for analogue SLR cameras (EUR 24,95)

For the B series, there is the matching body cap for PB, B 100 and B 200 as well as the rear lens cap for Prakticar PB.

Further reading: sources, guides, forums

Almost everything in this article comes from work that others have done. These sites are more detailed than we can be here, and on several points simply better.

Models, figures, factory history

• Mike's Praktica Pages, the most accurate source for production numbers, model figures and designers, broken down by L series, B-System and BX series. The site looks like it's from 2005 and is still the best there is.
• Wikipedia: Praktica and Praktica L. Source of the nomenclature table and the model years in this article.
• filmphotography.eu: Praktica, German-language model pages with pictures and short descriptions, good for cross-checking.
• Deutsches Kameramuseum: Revueflex models with photos and the corresponding Praktica equivalent for each.

Instruction manuals

• Mike Butkus' manual archive: instruction manuals for practically every Praktica model as PDFs, free in exchange for a voluntary donation. If you want to know how the self-timer on your LTL 3 works, you'll find it there.

User reviews

• Ken Davis on 35mmc (October 2025), the best overview of Praktica lenses, written by someone with more than twenty working bodies.
• Casual Photophile: Praktica MTL 5B, detailed review of the most widespread late model.
• Alex Luyckx: Pentacon Praktica LTL. Long-term review with sample images.
• David de Groot: Praktica BX20, one of the few serious reviews of the BX series.
• Photrio: Praktica Appreciation Thread, the big English-language collection thread, active for years.
• APHOG forum: Praktica L series repair, German-language repair help from people who open these cameras regularly.

Video

• Praktica MTL 5B: Weltklasse! (channel Kolibri). Presentation of the late model in German.
• Kameraportrait Praktica MTL 50: Mehr wäre Luxus (channel S. Schüngel), exactly the model most often confused with the MTL 5.
• Praktica MTL3 in 2023, with sample images (channel Gideon Liddiard Photography), in English, with image results.

On our site

• Praktica battery overview, around eighty models with the matching cell, adapter and instructions.
• Replacing light seals, the most common repair on an old Praktica, step by step.
• Repair shops for film cameras, for everything that goes beyond light seals.
• Buying an analog camera on eBay, what to look out for before you bid.

And if it isn't a Praktica at all: The battery finder covers more than a thousand camera models, from Agfa to Zenit, each with the right cell and the right adapter.

Is a model missing, or does a detail not match your camera? Write to us and we'll add it to the overview. All photos in this article come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited with author and license at each image.