KW Praktica Sport1955

History

KW (Kamera-Werkstätten) had been producing reflexes under the Praktiflex and then Praktica names since the late 1930s. The Praktiflex, introduced in 1939, was a bottom-loading 35mm SLR using the M42 mount (one of the earliest cameras to adopt it) with a waist-level viewfinder. After the Second World War, KW continued under East German state management and the Praktica FX models of the early 1950s continued the waist-level tradition on the same M42 platform.

The Praktica Sport introduced the eye-level pentaprism into the Praktica line at a point when Japanese manufacturers -- particularly Asahi with the Asahiflex -- were beginning to define eye-level SLR viewing as the expected standard. The name "Sport" connoted quick, eye-level action shooting as opposed to the deliberate waist-level framing of earlier models. It was a deliberate market positioning: a camera for photographers who needed to react to their subject rather than compose from below.

KW's Praktica Sport was not the only East German eye-level SLR of the mid-1950s; the Exakta Varex line from Ihagee also offered pentaprism finders. But the M42 mount on the Praktica gave it access to a wider and ultimately more enduring lens ecosystem than the Exakta bayonet, a difference that would become apparent as M42 became a near-universal standard in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Sport was succeeded by the Praktica IV (1959) and subsequent numbered models, each refining the body architecture toward the form that would define the L-series from 1969 onward.

Why It Matters

The Praktica Sport represents one of the early decisive steps in East German SLR design toward the form factor that would dominate 35mm photography for thirty years: eye-level pentaprism viewing on an M42-mount mechanical body. While it predates built-in metering, self-timers, and the more refined shutter mechanisms of later Praktica bodies, it established the basic proposition that the Dresden cameras would maintain through the VLC and MTL series: manual, mechanical, M42.

For collectors, the Sport is a working camera with genuine historical significance: it belongs to the period when the SLR was not yet the assumed format for serious 35mm photography, and its combination of pentaprism viewing and cloth shutter represents the East German camera industry's engagement with that competitive moment. It is rarer on the used market than the later L-series bodies, and in good working order it is a functional M42 SLR.

Lenses & Accessories

The M42 mount makes the Praktica Sport compatible with the full M42 lens library, though lenses with the auto-aperture pin (produced later for the L-series bodies) offer no benefit here -- the Sport has no coupling mechanism. All M42 lenses operate manually, with the aperture stopped down manually before exposure.

East German lenses available contemporaneously included:

• Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f/2.8 - standard four-element lens, sharp when stopped down
• Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2 - faster standard, collected for character and bokeh
• Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primotar 50mm f/3.5 - entry-level standard
• Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/3.5 - early wide-angle option

All later M42 lenses, including Asahi Super-Takumar and SMC Takumar glass, fit and function correctly (in stopped-down manual mode).

An external clip-on or shoe-mount selenium meter is needed for exposure; period accessories from Carl Zeiss Jena or Gossen work well with the shoe or cold-clip arrangement.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used by East German amateur and press photographers in the mid-to-late 1950s; one of the first accessible eye-level SLRs available within the GDR.
• Exported in limited quantities to Western European markets alongside other Praktica models, where its M42 mount made it compatible with a growing range of aftermarket lenses.
• Collected today as an early example of the Praktica pentaprism tradition and the Dresden SLR lineage.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Praktica - covers the full Praktica line history including early models and model sequencing