Pentacon F
The Pentacon F is a single-lens reflex camera presented by VEB Zeiss Ikon Dresden at the Leipzig autumn fair in 1956 . It was intended as an export variant of the Contax F for those markets in which the product name “ Contax ” could not be used for licensing reasons. The Contax / Pentacon F was manufactured until around 1962 under the aegis of the merged camera and cinema works in Dresden. After the production of the Pentacon F was discontinued, this large company took on the company name VEB Pentacon Dresden in 1964 . Pentacon is like Pentax for “Pentaprisma-Contax” - a reference to the pioneering role of this camera as the first mass-produced single-lens reflex with an inverted prism and a correct viewfinder image.
Furnishing
- Horizontal cloth focal plane shutter with exposure times between 1/1000 and 1 second, additional setting for B (any / long exposure) and flash light
- Lens connection: M42x1 thread
- Standard lens: Carl Zeiss / Jena Biotar 2.0 / 58mm
- Viewfinder: Pentaprism with focusing screen
- Mechanical self-timer on the front of the device with an expiry time of approx. 8 seconds
- knobbed camera cover / leather
- horizontal grooves on the viewfinder for attaching eyepiece accessories
The handling of the Pentacon F takes comparatively getting used to, but it is feasible. The oscillating mirror swings automatically upwards before the picture is taken, but then remains in this upper position so that the unclamped camera that is not ready to fire does not show a viewfinder image. Only when you turn the large knurled wheel to advance the film does the mirror slowly move down again and the viewfinder becomes bright again.
An exposure measurement has to be done away from the camera; the camera has no exposure metering or additional electronics: it contains pure, robust precision mechanics.
The focus is on the undivided focusing screen (ground glass); There are no micro prisms or Fresnel lenses, and no sectional wedge either.
The shutter must be closed manually before taking a picture. For this purpose, the standard lens has a corrugated quick-release ring, which, however, develops an ever greater breakaway torque with increasing age, so that at some point you will rather loosen / unscrew the lens from the camera than close the aperture.
The Tessar 2.8 / 50 lens from Carl Zeiss Jena (was available as an accessory) had a built-in spring diaphragm. You could set the aperture manually and then turn up the ring. The shutter then remained open. When the shutter button was depressed, the aperture jumped back to the preset value.
Individual evidence
- ^ Brauer, Egon: Autumn fair 1956 in Leipzig . In: Picture & Sound . Issue 9/1956, September 1956, pp. 246 .