Buying Praktica MTL 5 - what to look for?

The MTL 5 was produced between 1983-1985. The camera uses the Varta 625 battery for the light meter and flash sync. is 1/125 sec. however,the camera has a tendency to suffer from spacing problems in the shutter because the internal parts of this camera was made quite weak.

If you are looking for a screw mount SLR to use I highly recommend the Pentax SP series.

Is there any way to check for this problem with the shutter other than waiting for it to fail?

Also, keep in mind that we're talking $10 here - I can handle some risk for that amount of money.

I agree with the shutter leak problem. That was my first real SLR and I learned everything on it. I loved the simplicity of the controls, and few if any cameras I've owned since then have felt as good in actual use. Seriously. And yes, check out the Pentax screw lenses if you like sharpness. The end came when I started getting faint narrow bands of increased density in the middle of negs that I couldn't ignore. The solution for you would be to put a roll of film through before buying, but as d+p could end up costing more than the camera itself you could just ask the seller. If it were me, at that price I'd take the chance. Good luck.

That is a Tessar lens from Carl Zeiss Jena. It is an excellent lens worth the $10 for the lens alone. The MTL 5 is a very good camera. I own 3 of those models. The shutter is vertical, metal bladed; one of the best designed and made. You can test the shutter against a TV set with pictures running. Remove the lens, hold the camera against the TV a few feet away, open the back of the camera, look through the frame and fire the shutter at different speed settings starting with 1/60 sec and go higher. Fire several times at each speed. At 1/60 sec it should show full frame. At 1/125 sec it should show half frame. At 1/250 sec it should show 1/4 frame. At 1/500 sec it should show 1/8 frame/ And at 1/1000 sec it should show 1/16 frame. Full frame would be all of 24mm. And 1/16 frame would be only 1.5mm wide strip of the TV picture. Usually these shutters are very accurate, unless someone had mishandled them. Check the lens clarity, aperture, focusing mechanism and the automatic pin. Inside the front of the camera check the mirror and levers as to whether they are clean. If these are okay and the rewind button works from the bottom then you have a very good bargain. As suggested above you may also try a film roll in it to see the results. All the Best!

Regarding the battery you can use the modern button cell battery no 357 or D357. It works very well. No need to search for the Varta 625.

I'd agree with Subbarayan - it is a really excellent and accurate shutter. Quality control at Pentacon was perhaps not the best, but as long as you get one that is still working 25 or more years later, it should keep going indefinitely. About 9 out of 10 Prakticas have a disintegrating light seal at the hinge end of the back, but this is very easily replaced.

The MTL5B used a SR44 silver oxide button cell which I think is still available. You may need to make a simple adapter to use some button cells in place of the 625 cell used in the MTL5 and earlier, but as the meter uses a bridge circuit, the voltage is not critical as long as it is somewhere near. Always check before buying that someone has not left a leaky cell in the camera. If they have, and the circuit board is corroded, it is really only good for spares.

Praktica prisms sometimes show some brown defocussed marks at the edge of the field of view. They don't get in the way of picture-taking and are quite easy to ignore, but worth checking for if this sort of thing annoys you!

I just got the camera earlier today. It didn't have a battery in it (which is good - there's no corrosion), so I need to find one. Overall, it seems to be in very good condition, even the lens (which does focus at infinity), and the shutter seems to work. It's a little dirty in some areas, but a little gentle cleaning should have it looking about as good as new! Again, worst case is I'm out $10, but I still have the lens and a nice neck strap.

Subbarayan - that's a very clever trick for checking shutter speed. I will try it not only on this camera, but on my mom's old Nikon FE (which I occasionally use) as well!

I plan to check the light seals for any obvious problems and then put a roll of film in it and see what happens! I'll keep you all posted and try to take some photos of it with my D70s later.

OK, I got a battery and the meter appears to work properly, but I still have to double-check against the metering in my D70s to make sure they roughly agree. I'm not sure yet whether the shutter speeds are accurate - I have to test them as well.

There is one problem - the lens does not stop down! In retrospect, this would've been something obvious to check before. The problem is with the lens, I believe - if I push the pin down, the lens' aperture blades do not move. It's stuck at f/2.8. Is it possible to take this apart to fix it?

All those things, and a little cleaning and light seal checking, and I might be good to go!

It turns out that the lens was stuck in 'manual' mode, meaning that the automatic step-down was disabled. The switch for M/A was stuck, so I figured that since it only cost $10 it couldn't hurt to take it apart. It wasn't too bad - I only took off the very back ring that mounts to the camera. I found that a small bearing which the switch relies upon had fallen out of place, so I replaced it and now the lens works almost perfectly. The diaphragm blades are still stick sometimes; I think there's a little oil on them.

Also, the meter has now stopped working. This is upsetting because it worked, then I went to get dinner, and when I came back an hour later it had stopped working. Maybe next I'll take the front of the camera apart to see if the switch has a bad connection :)

Other than that, I just need to replace the light seals near the hinge. Where do I get replacements? Would black felt work? What do I use to remove the existing residue? (Google, here I come!) Then I can start looking for these outrageously cheap M42 lenses I keep hearing about :)