KW Praktiflex II1948

History

Kamera-Werkstätten survived World War II with its Dresden factory partially intact, though the city suffered heavy bombing in February 1945. Production resumed under Soviet occupation and subsequently under the East German Democratic Republic. The postwar Praktiflex -- referred to retroactively by collectors as the Praktiflex II or Praktiflex FX, though KW's own designations were not always consistent -- incorporated the technical improvements that wartime production interruptions had delayed.

The most significant mechanical advance on the postwar Praktiflex was the coupling of the film advance knob to the shutter cocking mechanism. On the original 1938 Praktiflex, the photographer had to wind the film and cock the shutter as two separate operations -- a source of missed frames and double exposures. The postwar refinement linked these actions, making the camera safer and faster to operate.

The M42 mount, carried over unchanged from 1938, was also refined in the postwar period. Carl Zeiss Jena and Meyer-Optik Görlitz, both also operating as East German state enterprises, produced lenses for the M42 standard throughout this period. When Asahi Optical in Japan adopted essentially the same thread specification for the Asahiflex (1952) and subsequently for the entire Pentax line, the mount's fate as a global standard was sealed.

By 1949, KW had begun marketing the successor line under the Praktica name, and by the early 1950s the Praktiflex designation was being phased out. The Praktiflex II sits in a narrow historical window: postwar, pre-Praktica, and technically significant.

Why It Matters

The Praktiflex II is the camera that established the M42 mount in its stable, production form. While the 1938 Praktiflex introduced the M42 concept, it was the postwar refinement that produced the mount in the form that would be adopted internationally. The lens-mount standardisation that the Praktiflex II represents had consequences far beyond KW or East Germany: by the time Asahi, Fujinon, Mamiya, and scores of independent lens makers had adopted M42, it had become the de facto universal 35mm SLR mount -- a position it held until Pentax's switch to the K bayonet in 1975.

For the Dresden camera industry specifically, the Praktiflex II also represents the successful reconstitution of precision optical-mechanical manufacturing in a devastated postwar city -- a technological continuity that made East Germany a significant camera-exporting nation for the following three decades.

Lenses & Accessories

The Praktiflex II accepts any M42 lens. Lenses available in the postwar period from KW's associated manufacturers included the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50/3.5, Meyer-Optik Primotar 50/3.5, and Meyer-Optik Trioplan 50/2.9. The Biotar 58/2 from Carl Zeiss Jena, one of the most sought-after M42 lenses by modern collectors, was also produced during this era. The M42 mount's universal legacy means modern adapters allow these and thousands of other M42 lenses to be fitted to mirrorless digital cameras.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used by East German photographers and photojournalists in the immediate postwar period (1948-early 1950s), before the Praktica line matured and before Western cameras became available in East Germany.
• The M42 mount standard it embodies was later used by photographers worldwide, including those who worked with Asahi Pentax Spotmatic cameras in the 1960s-70s -- indirectly connecting the Praktiflex II to a vast body of 20th-century photographic work.
• Collected today as the postwar anchor of the M42 origin story, alongside the 1938 Praktiflex.

References

• Camera-Wiki: KW Praktiflex -- covers the full Praktiflex production history including postwar variants