Pentacon Pentina II

Born out of East Germany in the late 1950s, Pentacon was an exporter of the Zeiss Ikon Contax, but soon became its own camera producing company. A multitude of photography related companies merged into Pentacon in the latter half of the 1960s as well, further cementing Pentacon as a competitor in Germany. But as the German reunification of the 1990s rolled around, the company was deemed unprofitable and was soon disbanded. Pentacon had a shorter history then most camera manufactures, but one full of some very interesting cameras. One such camera was the Pentacon Pentina line of leaf shutter SLR cameras produced from 1961 to 1965. Consisting of six to seven models, depending on who you talk to, the Pentina was a short lived camera for Pentacon that saw moderate success.

The Pentina

Pentacon cameras are not very well known, and those who have heard of them tend to know of the Praktica line or the couple of 120 SLR’s. The Pentacon I own is an early release Pentacon Pentina II from 1961. It was the first model with a meter, and the later models kept the same case shape until the camera line was discontinued in 1965. This cameras aesthetic is amazing and incredible to the eye. You have a sharp edged body, slightly curving at the top, with the prominent circular lens taking most of the attention. The camera is built in an incredibly minimalistic style, hiding rewind knobs and other controls on the underside of the camera, leaving a very clean looking body. The leatherette is striped horizontally as well to add to the almost art deco style. This camera had work put into the way it looks, and it achieves it all.

The Pentina is a leaf shutter SLR camera, with a very complicated shutter mechanism to achieve this feat. The viewfinder is somewhat large for the time, but much darker then I am used to. It’s not too bad, but another trade off for the viewfinder is that the focusing screen is just a fresnel lens, no split image. Usually this would bother me a lot, but something about focusing this camera through a viewfinder that has absolutely no distractions is soothing. The camera produces some incredible looking depth of field through the lens, almost having a cinema quality to it. Along with that, you have the fun of an early SLR camera as well, where there is no instant mirror return. You have to wind the shutter to see through the camera, which is not too much of a hassle. On the rear of the camera, next to the viewfinder, is the film advance lever with the frame counter above that. NOTE that the only way to change the frame counter is to open the back of the camera!

The top of the camera is very minimalistic as well, consisting of a cold shoe and a very simple match needle meter. My meter unfortunately does not work. Normally I would go in and mess with it but something makes me feel like that’s a bad idea, I’d rather leave this camera in good working order. The PC port is located on the same side as the shutter release, that is oddly on the front of the camera and even weirder for being on the left side. The switch to change between X, M and a self timer are on the opposite side. The main controls for this camera are on the lens mount, being the shutter speed and aperture. The shutter speed comes in at 1 second to 1/500th of a second, typical for most leaf shutter SLRs of the time. The aperture has a speed of f/2.8 to f/22 as well, seemingly a bit slow but still very usable today. Pentacon used a very proprietary lens mount of the Pentina line, know today as the Pentina bayonet mount. The aperture is housed in the lens, but the controls are on the body of the camera. This leads to an odd system of a pin that moves in and out depending on the speed selected. This is where most Pentina’s have their problem, they tend to get jammed or get sluggish. Mine example works on most speeds, a tad slower on f/22 at 1/500th of a second, but I can live with that. There were a handful of lenses made in your typical prime lens sizes 30mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm. Getting a hold of them is even harder than finding a working camera, so jump on any you see that are a decent price. To remove the lens all you need to do is rotate the chrome ring closest to the camera body, and it will come free. But be sure to align the lens properly when putting it back on, it’s an odd mount.

The bottom of the camera is where all the housekeeping is kept. You have the rewind knob, the ASA dial for the meter, a tripod socket, a rewind release button, and a film type reminder dial. The rewind knob is worth mentioning as well, given how unique it is. You have to pull the lever away from the camera body, and then when it’s out you rest it in the groove and rewind away. The biggest flaw of the camera happens to be in the strap lugs, they are not standard. They are in the same vein as a Hasselblad style clip, but somewhat larger. The clips are not too hard to find, but they need to be modified a bit to accept the larger size. Even when the clips are secure, I have doubts that they will hold… but I’m sure they will be fine, so far so good.

To open the back of the camera, there is a small tab you can see to the left of the rewind lever. As you pull that tab down, the back of the camera is completely removable. When the camera is not wound, you can see that the eyepiece has a shutter to prevent extra light leaks as well. Another odd feature is that the film loads right to left, opposite from a normal SLR. Along with that, you can see the rocking switch, under the advance lever, that changes the number on the frame counter. That is essentially all there is to the Pentacon Pentina. It is a simple looking camera but includes all the settings of a typical SLR of the time. Completely capable for any photographer in the 60s and totally usable today.

The Experience

Pentina cameras are not easy to find, and especially in working condition. My Pentina II arrived in a somewhat working state. I’ve heard of nightmares described on forums of how hard it is to maintain a Pentina and how awful they are to service. Luckily all mine needed was a couple of naphtha rinses on the shutter blades. I did end up completely taking apart the lens to clean the aperture blades though, which was a nightmare, but after that, I had a fully working Pentina.

This is a very unique looking camera, and one of my all time favorites to mess around with. It’s not very ergonomic for the hand though, almost as bad as the Argus C3 brick, but I can live with that. It feels incredibly solid, no worries about build quality. The lens is phenomenal in almost every way, and for a very good reason. Like I have mentioned before, Zeiss Ikon was a sub company of Pentacon. This meant all the first party lenses were Zeiss lenses, and amazing quality Zeiss lenses too. My Pentina came with an amazing Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 lens. The results you get from this lens are very unique as well, and focusing with this lens is a dream. It feels amazing in the hand and it’s super precise. The shutter speed and aperture are easy enough to control as well, making this camera usable for anyone and everyone. The only thing I really dislike comes down to how loud the shutter of this camera is. It’s not the loudest leaf shutter SLR I have used, but it sure can’t be used discreetly.

The Pentacon Pentina II was the camera to really cultivate my admiration for Zeiss and my obsession with acquiring more Zeiss cameras and lenses. Zeiss Ikon is synonymous with quality and manufacturing prowess, and you can really see that here. This camera is likely to turn heads and cause someone to strike up a conversation. Especially when you tell them it’s a Zeiss camera sporting a Zeiss Tessar lens. The Pentina doesn’t take a back seat to any other camera from the late 60s, it was toe to toe with them all, and is still a solid option for anyone looking for some Zeiss quality today.