Pentina

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The Pentina is a quite unusual leaf-shutter SLR made by the East-German VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden between 1961 and 1965 [1]. In 1964 the company was renamed VEB Pentacon, where also the name Pentina was derived from. VEB Pentacon and its predecessor companies were rather known for their successful series of focal-plane shutter SLRs (Contax, Praktica, Exa, etc.) and designing and producing a rather complex but technically limited leaf-shutter SLR seemed like a setback. However, during the late 1950ies the West-German competition (namely Kodak Retina, Voigtländer and Zeiss Ikon) successfully implemented coupled Selenium meters into their leaf-shutter SLRs. This obviously was the driving force for the East-Germans to also develop a model for this market segment.

Background and History

The Pentina is a quite unusual camera in many ways. First of all, with her clean design surrounded by the chromium finished aluminum frame it is hiding to be a SLR with the usual pentaprism. Jürgen Peters laid the basis for its design as part of his diploma thesis at the Hochschule für Bildende und Angewandte Kunst (University of Fine and Applied Arts, Berlin-Weißensee) in 1958. Secondly, the use of a leaf-shutter was a novelty for the quite advanced SLR camera expertise based in Dresden, which so far exclusively used focal plane shutters. The East-German engineers around Dresden lost the capabilities to produce high quality leaf shutters already during the 1930ies, when Zeiss Ikon and the Carl Zeiss foundation took control over a hidden German leaf shutter monopoly with the West-German companies Deckel and Gauthier. With the German separation after WWII it became more and more difficult for the East-German camera industry (which would eventually be consolidated into Pentacon) to purchase the West-German shutters.
They were forced to re-invent the technology again, mainly for simple viewfinder cameras like the Werra.[2] However, the (so called) Prestor-00 reflex leaf-shutter used in the Pentina marked the summit of these development efforts, as it proved that the East-Germans could still keep pace with the West-German Industry. Ironically, with the high complexity the camera became expensive and almost non affordable for the average East-German worker. Even in the western export markets it belonged to the most expensive cameras of its class. Only about 45,000 units have been produced and production ceased already in 1965 and from that on Pentacon focussed on focal-plane shutter SLR, only. Interestingly, the early 1960ies created a few of these expensive (semi-)automatic leaf-shutter SLRs. Besides the West-German models Kodak Retina Reflex or Voigtländer's Bessamatic (and some others) they were even Japanese cameras in this segment (although Japan's SLR makers also favoured the focal-plane shutter): Nikon's Nikkorex 35, or the Fujicarex II, just to name two.

Specifications

  • SLR camera 24x36 mm with built-in prism viewfinder
  • Interchangeable lenses with Pentina plug-in bayonet
  • Selenium light meter with needle meter reading on top of the camera
  • Film speed setting 6-1600 ASA in both, ASA and DIN scale
  • Match-needle metering with adjacent aperture and shutter time rings around the lens, advertised as (semi) automatic exposure.
  • Quick-release lever (like the shutter button on the left camera side), mirror does not return automatically
  • Prestor-00 reflex leaf-shutter with exposure times from 1 s to 1/500 s and B
  • Flash synchronization M or X, switchable, extremely short electronic flash times possible
  • Image counter
  • Self-timer
  • Rewind crank (bottom of camera)
  • Accessory shoe (cold)
  • Film type marker (bottom of camera)
  • Tripod socket ¼ "

Lenses

The Pentina features exchangeable lenses through a special breechlock type bayonet mount. Four lenses were available:

  • Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 1:2,8/50 mm (standard lens with every camera)
  • Meyer Lydith 1:3,5/30 mm
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Cardinar 1:2,8/85 mm
  • Meyer Domigor 1:4/135 mm

In early brochures a Meyer Domigon 1:3,5/30 mm was mentioned, which never made it into production. The lenses have built-in apertures, but no aperture ring to set them. This was part of the so called Kombisteller arrangement of shutter-time and aperture rings on the camera itself.


Interchangeable lenses for The Pentina
images by Alf Sigaro (Image rights)


Models and Variations

There were four variants of the camera, which can clearly be distinguished by the model plate:

  • Pentina (base model, see specs above)
  • Pentina M (base model with additional split image focus aid)
  • Pentina fm (base model with split image and micro-prism focus aid)
  • Pentina E (simple model without the exposure meter)

Richard Hummel states in his book [3] that there was a first (Type I, 1961-1963) and a second generation (Type II, 1961-65) of the camera. This has proved wrong, as with some other statements in this book.[1] There have been a few deviating studies (assigned as type I), which never went into production [4]. Only the type II camera (according to Hummel), was the one that was mass-produced from the start and was shown in the early 1960s brochures.

Image galery

Pentina top, bottom and (open) back
images by Christoph Batz (Image rights)


Notes and References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Comprehensive Pentina article on www.dresdner-kameras.de (in German)
  2. Pronto, presto, subito! Zentralverschlüsse im DDR-Kamerabau on ZeissIkonVEB.de (in German)
  3. Hummel, Richard. Spiegelreflexkameras aus Dresden - Geschichte, Technik, Fakten. Stuttgart: Lindemanns, 1998. ISBN 3895061271
  4. Heinz Schrauf, Pentina - Sein oder nicht-Design? in PhotoDeal IV / 2000

Links