Plaubel PL 67 TLLC

History

Plaubel & Co. was founded in Frankfurt in 1902 and produced precision cameras -- including the famous Makina strut-folder series -- for most of the twentieth century. By the 1970s the company was in financial difficulty, and in 1975 it was acquired by Doi (Japan), a Tokyo-based photo retail and distribution group. Under Japanese ownership, Plaubel developed the Makina 67 (1979) and Makina W67 (1980), Japanese-designed and manufactured cameras that used the Plaubel brand to position themselves in the premium compact-medium-format market.

The PL 67 TLLC represents a further extension of the Japanese-era Plaubel product line into the professional modular SLR segment -- a market dominated in the 1980s by Hasselblad, Mamiya, Bronica, and Pentax. The camera was intended to offer a competitive professional system body under the Plaubel name. It did not achieve the commercial success or market presence of the Makina 67 series, and it is considerably rarer on the used market today.

Production and discontinuation dates are not precisely documented in publicly available sources.

Why It Matters

The PL 67 TLLC is historically interesting as a document of the Japanese-era Plaubel strategy: the brand, by the mid-1980s, was a commercial vehicle for positioning Japanese-manufactured cameras in the European professional market. The TTL metering integration was a genuine technical advancement for the 6x7 format -- Hasselblad did not offer TTL metering on its bodies until the 2000FCW, and Mamiya's RB67 system required a metering prism finder.

For working photographers of the 1980s, a 6x7 SLR with integrated TTL metering simplified exposure workflow considerably relative to separate handheld metering or metered prism finders. The PL 67 TLLC offered that workflow in a body positioned as a professional alternative to the established Mamiya and Pentax 6x7 systems.

The camera is rare enough today that it occupies a specialist-collector niche. Parts and service support are limited, and the Plaubel brand's association with the more famous Makina 67 rangefinder means the PL 67 system is often overlooked in the medium-format SLR collector market.

Lenses & Accessories

The PL 67 TLLC uses the proprietary Plaubel PL67 bayonet mount. Lenses were manufactured to this mount specifically for the system; adaptation from other mounts is not straightforwardly possible given the flange requirements of a 6x7 focal-plane SLR.

Likely system accessories (to be verified):

• Interchangeable viewfinders -- waist-level finder, metering prism variants
• Film backs -- interchangeable 120 backs; 220 back availability unconfirmed
• Motor winder -- availability and compatibility unconfirmed
• Focusing screens -- screen replacement availability unconfirmed

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used by professional portrait and commercial photographers in the 1980s seeking TTL metering in the 6x7 format.
• Collected today primarily by Plaubel brand completists and 6x7 SLR specialists.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Plaubel