Pentacon Six1956

History

VEB Pentacon emerged from the postwar East German reorganization of the Dresden photographic industry, consolidating several pre-war firms -- including KW (Kamera-Werkstätten) -- under state direction. The Pentacon Six system was developed as an East German response to the growing demand for professional-grade 6x6 SLR cameras; the Hasselblad 500C (introduced 1957) would become its Western counterpart and primary competitor in the export market.

The camera first appeared under the Praktisix name, reflecting the KW "Praktica" lineage, before being rebranded with Pentacon Six markings that emphasized the system's identity as a coherent professional platform rather than just an extended consumer line. The P6 bayonet mount was designed from the outset to support a full system of lenses and accessories, in contrast to the fixed-mount Pilot Reflex of 1932 or the more limited prewar medium-format SLRs.

Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, VEB Pentacon refined the body design iteratively. The Pentacon Six TL, introduced in the later 1960s, added the option of a TTL metering pentaprism finder -- the "TL" suffix denoting this capability -- and this version carried the system into the 1970s and beyond. Soviet production of a very similar design under the Kiev-60 designation extended the P6 mount's production life further; Kiev-60 bodies with Zeiss Jena lenses became a common professional medium-format combination in the Soviet bloc.

Why It Matters

The original Pentacon Six established the P6 mount and initiated a production system that, across East German and Soviet manufacturing, resulted in some of the finest medium-format optics ever produced at accessible price points. Carl Zeiss Jena's Biometar 80/2.8 and Sonnar 180/2.8 in P6 mount are collected and used today for their optical quality, and both adapt readily to modern mirrorless cameras via inexpensive adapters.

The camera was used by professional photographers in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the export markets of Asia and the developing world throughout the Cold War era. Its square 6x6 format suited editorial and portrait work where cropping flexibility was valued. In the West, the Pentacon Six system was imported through specialist dealers and was known as a budget-conscious alternative to Hasselblad -- one that sacrificed Swiss-precision reliability for German-optical quality at a significantly lower price.

The original pre-TL body is now primarily of historical interest; working photographers who want to shoot the P6 system typically prefer later Pentacon Six TL or Kiev-60 bodies for their refinements, but the original version's shutter mechanism and optical path are fundamentally the same.

Lenses & Accessories

The Pentacon Six (P6) bayonet accepts all lenses made for the system, including later production:

• Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 -- the standard lens; highly regarded for corner-to-corner sharpness and pleasant rendering.
• Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 50mm f/4 -- wide-angle; strong performer, moderate distortion.
• Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 -- portrait and telephoto standard; one of the most sought-after P6 lenses.
• Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 300mm f/4 -- long telephoto, less common.
• Meyer-Optik Orestegor 200mm f/4 -- alternative telephoto at lower cost.

Accessories for the original body include waist-level finder variants, accessory shoe-mount meters, and interchangeable focusing screens on later versions. The later Pentacon Six TL bodies introduced integrated metering prism finders that are not directly compatible with the earliest Praktisix-era bodies without modification.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used extensively by professional photographers in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union for editorial, portrait, and documentary work from the late 1950s onward.
• The P6 system and its Zeiss Jena lenses were used by photographers working for DEFA (the East German state film studio) and associated press agencies.
• Imported into Western markets as a professional medium-format option through specialized dealers in the UK, Netherlands, and Scandinavia during the 1960s and 1970s.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Pentacon Six